A promise made is a promise kept

A promise made is a promise kept

A 365 days' work between the covers

This year's last season greeting to you all! It is the last day of 2014 and I have something big to discuss.

As this year has come to a wonderful end, you might remember me talk about my New Year's Resolution for the year 2014. A quick recap to those who can't be bothered with the link;

"In the year 2014 I will/have taste/d every alcohol product (most importantly the whiskies) we sell at our bar."

"The commandments with twists and turns"

A great way to combine work and pleasure:

1. Work: I want to learn how different whiskies taste like so I know what I am selling our customers
2. Pleasure. I want to learn to taste different whiskies to become better at it. 

Now 365 days to sample what, ~100 products in total? (I counted them, 133 is the correct amount) What looked like an easy job actually ended up being one of the closest thing to be unfinished!

Okay, let's break this "task" down. What did really happen during this year?

1. The whiskies

This included each and every whisky our bar holds. Naturally, in the course of one full year, some whiskies were drunk before I got to them and subsequently some new products were available for me to assess. As long as I had each currently available sampled at the end of this year, I considered it a success. Every time I sample a product, write down the date as well.

Example page. Name, "type" and date when tasted.

2. The liquors

This meant the rest. From the mild ABVs (e.g. port/sherry) to the hard stuff (gins, rums, vodkas and other).

3. No (tap) beers, wines or mixer liqueurs!

I deliberately wanted to limit this section not to be included in the resolution. The reason is quite simple. Sampling low ABV mixer liqueurs doesn't make much sense (no-one ever orders them separately) and with the bottled products we had so many seasonal changes (cidre weeks, summer beers, winter ales and so forth). The same goes for the wines. Although we have a more or less "steady" list, our wines changed throughout the year quite a few times.

4. What if a product was drunk before I got to it?!

Well that sucked! For instance, I was really sad that the Nikka 10yo was drunk before I was able to taste it. Okay, I got to taste its older 20yo brother but still, evaluating them together would have been so much better. Later on I will let you know about the ones "missing in action" and "new incomers".

5. Which one did you like the best? Which one was not good?

Each product, be it a whisky or a liquor, I rated with a 1-5 star system. When evaluating an article, I tried to write down a few notes regarding said product and finally putting a "rating" to it. Coarsely, the rating as follows and keep in mind, this is according to my opinion. What I say only reflects my personal preferences:

* : Did not taste good at all!
** : Meh. Lacked potential and taste.
*** : Palatable. Missed that little "oompf" to receive another star.
**** : Very good! Wouldn't mind having another one!
***** : Exceptional in taste, texture and finish. A diamond.

Strictly speaking, only the greatest whiskies got in my personal Hall of Fame. They needn't be a five-star whisky to achieve this but if they managed to knock my socks right off my feet, they made it to the list. In addition, the ones (whiskies) I liked the least had the "honor" of becoming products in my Hall of Shame. As for the rest liquors, I did rate them as well but did not include them in the HoF, for obvious reasons.

Finally, every time I had a sample at our bar, I kept the receipt. I wanted to know how much I spent over the year to accomplish this task.

MISSING IN ACTION(never got to sample these)

• Benriach 12yo non-chill filtered
• Benriach 16yo
• Nikka 10yo
• Highland Park Loki 15yo
• Laphroaig 10yo cask strength
• Laphroaig 18yo
• Ardbeg non-chill filtered
• Minttu (black mint)
• Koskenkorva Nordic Berries
• Koskenkorva Blueberry
• Koskenkorva Lingonberry
• Ardbeg Auriverdes

NEW PRODUCTS(available to sample)

• Nikka 20yo
• Ardbeg Corryveckan
• Plantation XO Rum
• Nikka from the Barrel
• Macallan Ruby

THE FINAL WHISKY
MISSION COMPLETED :D

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

So up to this day, I had finished everything else except for three whiskies! The Laphroaig series; Triple Wood, Cairdeas 2011 and Quarter Cask. After my work I sample the two former and as I got home I popped open the QC. Thus my New Year's Resolution was completed! And not a day too early :D

So what ended up being totally awesomesauce in flavor and which did not quite make it to the top (or even past the start line)?

The Hall of Fame and Shame, respectively

Eventually, according to my taste and preferences, some whiskies proved their right to become awesome, great and fabulous. "Sadly", for two whiskies this was not the case but quite the opposite. Glenlivet 18yo, Macallan 12yo sherry oak and Nikka 20yo were exceptional in taste and I had no problem adding this trio to the list! On the other hand, Bowmore 10yo (Devil's cask) and Johnny Walker Red Label were something quite horrid. Okay, for Red Label's defence, it is not a single malt but a blend. But even mixed with cola it didn't taste good! For ratings' sake I had to give it a "parenthesis" one star.

So what did this all cost me? Of course I didn't pay for the stuff I could drink at home. I counted the sums in the receipts and ended up in a sum of 343.8€! I actually had to recount twice because I got a bigger sum before! :D So this cost me less than 1€/day!

I have to admit that this New Year's Resolution was worth every cent. Not only did I experience a wide range of flavors but also (hopefully! :D) became more proficient in spirits of different styles. Now, could I explain you thoroughly about a whisky I tasted in February? Probably not. Sampling half a measure of whisky does not make me a pro, no sir! This is not just one year's job. It's a life-long process that follows one to their grave. It's a passion. If nothing else, at least I had quite a few different whiskies and other liquors to drink!


Sláinte!

When in doubt, gin it out!

A GIN TASTING

Well, hello everyone! It's been a good two and a half months (!) since my last post. My sincerest apologizes, I just happened to become a father for my first-born daughter, so I was rather busy all this time :D

But have no fear, I am here, with new tricks in my bag! My new (and fourth) shipment from Germany arrived just dandyishly so I could pull off another great tasting. This time we were to explore the world of gin. Given, from only two countries, but still!

Before we get to the details, I will try to "open up" my history to gin. As for most, gin equals Beefeater, Bombay, Gordon's and gin&tonics. It does make excellent other cocktails as well (the legendary French 75 for example) but is it really good drunk pure? This we were about to find out. Of course, we sampled these products with some "special" tonics as well and finished the night with three different gin-based cocktails.

Our first gin, a true classic, if you may, was Beefeater London dry gin. This was known to everyone of us the best. The second one, an organic gin, The Duke of Munich, from...you guessed, Munich. The last was a gin "titled" by the world as a "super-premium-excellence-diamond-platinum-one-of-a-kind"; Monkey 47 Schwartzwald dry gin from Germany as well! All of them were at least 45% ABV (90 proof), the Beefeater and Monkey 47 being 47% (94 proof) respectively. So stronger than your usual stuff.

SAMPLING

As you can see, this was super interesting :D What was really remarkable was the fact that gin as a product is really versatile! The amount of different styles of gin has sky rocketed in the last few years. Taste-wise, the Beefeater was the purest. Meaning, this tastes as people would imagine gin should taste like. Moreover, even with 47% it was incredibly smooth.

The Duke of Munich on the other hand, quite the opposite. Although in its purest form it wasn't quite as palatable as the other two, it had a long, lingering aftertaste. To the nose it was a bit stuffy. But there's quite the twist to this gin, explained later!

Thirdly and as our "joker" the Monkey 47. According to their websites they used lingonberries in the process of making this gin. Anyhow, this gin was extremely fresh and lemony! One wouldn't believe it's gin at first! It was truly an exception to the bunch.

So now that we've sampled these pure, how about some tonic added?

Instead of using the o'regular Schweppes tonic water, I had a few bottles of Tonic Monaco at my disposal (from Aquamonaco). With silly 0.23L sizes (seriously), we used the extra dry tonic with our dry London gin and the regular tonic with the two others.

Of course the garnish part plays an important role. With the Beefeater, a lemon slice. The Duke of Munich received an orange slice (as recommended on their website) and with the Monkey 47 I decided to go with a lime wedge (just because). I tried to extract some juice of said fruit before adding the tonic.

As you could imagine, adding extra dry tonic with dry gin, the result? Quite dry!

I mean it was really, really dry. And I didn't know you could drink liquid that dry. Phooie! The greatest (positive) reaction was from the Duke of Munich version. Albeit it didn't claim much success by itself, in a tonic it was the best one! The Monkey 47 + tonic did succeed from the given task quite nicely as well. A very refreshing choice!

We finished the evening with three gin cocktails: Club Cover Cocktail, Bee's Knees and the Pegu Club Cocktail, in all using different gins (in given order).

Club Cover Cocktail was liked the best

Okay, I lied. I also made a Boston Sour.

Delicious. Period.

Summa summarum, the world of gin is exploding. The mass-produced "we-all-know-these" gins are getting substituted by special, distiller cuts or otherwise extraordinary products with each having their own little special quirk in their taste. I also believe that everyone can find their own favorite, let it be with or without (any) mixer.