Whisky review No. 8 - Glenkinchie 12 yo Scotch

Well, it's been ages since I last posted again. I don't think you've had to wait quite as long as last time though, and there's a fun spot-the-difference puzzle near the end of this one. You can go and find it right now if you like, I know you're excited. I very much appreciate those of you who've still been popping in even though there hasn't been anything new to read. I've been traveling again since my last post, this time to sunny California. It was my first ever trip to America and I was also a crime victim for the first time. Some joker broke into my hire car and stole the satnav, but it was covered in the insurance. I left the broken glass on the passenger seat for the whole week to deter any further criminal activity. The cheeky police told me they were too busy to come so I had to investigate by myself. I didn't find any clues. Anyway, I'll review some whisky now to cheer myself up. Try to relax and get yourself into a calm state of mind, but please don't listen to whale song while you read this. You're not a hippy.

Whisky review No. 7 - Lagavulin 16 yo Scotch

Hello again! It's been a while. Sorry to keep you all waiting so long. I had a little trip to England to visit my old friend Mr. Tiffen and I've been working a lot, so it just hasn't been possible to get any reviews up. I picked up a couple of bottles on my travels, so Aberlour A'bunadh batch 47 and Longrow 10 year old  reviews will be coming eventually. I got to sample a couple of different expressions of Springbank (among other delicious whiskies) while I was away too, but didn't take tasting notes as it seemed a little antisocial while visiting old friends. I think it was the standard ten year old and CV, which is a mixture of malts from various sizes of casks. I believe CV originally stood for Chairman's Vat, but now they don't seem to mind what people think it means.

Whisky review No. 6 - Cragganmore 12 yo Scotch

Hello again. I'm trying not to keep you waiting too long between reviews but there's only so much I can drink. Plus I have important things to do, like the washing up. I'm now working through Diageo's "classic malts" which are six single malt whiskies which they feel represent the main whisky regions of Scotland. They are Takisker from the Isle of Skye, Cragganmore from Speyside, Lagavulin from Islay, Glenkinchie from the Lowlands, Dalwhinnie from the Highlands and Oban from the West Highlands. I've already done Talisker 10, so here's Cragganmore 12. Lagavulin up next, then Glenkinchie. I'm looking forward to the Glenkinchie, I've never had a lowland whisky. Anyway, Cragganmore 12: Let's rock the party...

Whisky review No. 5 - Bunnahabhain 12 yo Scotch

Oh my goodness, this has taken me so long! I had to wait a bit for the bottle what with there being only one Vinmonopolet in town and them not having it in stock. The order was a little because of Easter as well. I could have gone to a different town, but I didn't think it was worth the train fare. Then I decided to order a new glen cairn with the Bunnahabhain logo on it for the pictures and it took just over a month to arrive. I've been thinking about this whisky for a while. Ralfy, the hero of ralfy.com, says it was the first single malt he ever tasted and PigHog from the straightrazorplace.com mentioned he'd bought a bottle and was quite pleased with it. So here it is...

Cheese review No. 2 - Castello Saga Classic

I was going to do the Norwegian cheddar as my second cheese review to compare it with the Cathedral City, but I couldn't find it in the shop. Castello Saga Classic was on offer so I got that instead. It was 40% off because it goes out of date today, so I'm expecting it to be fully ripe and tasty. I haven't had it before, but I have had a couple of Castello's other cheeses before and generally enjoyed them as far as I can remember. I usually like blue cheeses, but I'm a little wary of ones I haven't tried. There's a certain flavour you sometimes get with them that I find a bit unpleasant. I once had a fairly cheap dolce latte from Tesco and that had the flavour I don't like in it. Kind of a metallic type flavour that burns your mouth. Weird, and for now, quite irrelevant.

Trying to develop my palate a bit No. 2

Well, I'm still waiting on my whisky order from the government bottle shop. It usually only takes a week, but the Easter holidays means a slightly longer wait. I've been doing some research and finding out what I can about Bunnahabhain and whether or not I can get hold of a bottle of Young and Feisty Provenance. It turns out there are a few bottles in the country and I might be able to get one delivered, but it'll be next month. I've already used up this month's whisky budget. In the meantime I thought I'd share some thoughts about developing the palate.

Cheese review No.1 - Cathedral City Extra Mature Cheddar

I'm still waiting for my order of whiskies from Vinmonopolet to arrive. It should only be two more days, but then it'll be a few days of tasting before I'm ready to post another whisky review, so in the mean time I thought I'd have a go at a cheese review. It's the first time I've made cheese tasting notes, so I apologize in advance for wasting your time if it's rubbish. I've been reading up about cheese tasting and watching cheesy youtube videos for a couple of days so it shouldn't be all bad. Hopefully my cheese reviews will improve when I get a bit more experience and some interesting cheeses.

Don't panic

I realized it's been over a week since I last posted, so apologies to the hundreds of people who check regularly for fresh content. There is more to come soon, I promise, I'm just waiting on an order from Vinmonopolet (the government alcohol shop). I've ordered a bottle of Bunnahabhain 12 yo and a small bottle each of Cragganmore, Lagavulin and Glenkinchie to work through the six Classic Malts. (Or classic marketing, take your pick.)

Hot Toddy

Well, it's a whole week until payday, so I can't buy any more whisky to review for a while, and I'm beginning to get a cold. I thought i'd try a hot toddy, the traditional Scottish cold remedy. I was trying to follow Ralfy's recipe which you can watch on youtube, but I couldn't get the right ingredients her in Norway so I had to improvise. I was pretty close though. Have a watch of Ralfy's first, it's probably more authentic. Don't forget to come back after and read the rest of this blog post afterwards.

Whisky review No.4 - Laphroaig 10 yo Scotch

I had an awesome day a week or two ago. I checked my bank account just to see how it was doing and found I'd been paid for some work I did four months ago and had forgotten about. So I went to the government's official booze dispensary to see what I could get. I was hoping for Bunnahabhain 12 yo, which I will be ordering on payday (PigHog from the straightrazorplace.com forum said he'd just got a bottle and since he was my first proper reader I thought I'd do a review of it just for him), but they didn't have it. They did have Bunnahabhain Toiteach but I hadn't heard of that expression, and it doesn't have an age statement. I was a bit reluctant to buy a full 70cl bottle without knowing more about it so I decided on Laphroaig 10 yo.

Whisky review No. 3 - Springbank 12 yo Cask Strength Scotch - Batch No.6

I spent the last seven days working night shifts, which is great because I get to enjoy a dawn whisky everyday before bed. I took this picture today to show you how nice my walk home is if it isn't raining, but it didn't come out that well.

Ants!

I just had a look at the statistics section. It seems I've had a whole lot of hits, which makes me feel like a genius and was really quite unexpected. 39 from the USA, 32 from the UK, 6 from Germany, 2 from Canada and 1 from Russia! Thank you all so much for reading!

Spirit review No.1 - Linie Aquavit

Here's another little review. I wasn't quite sure what to put as the title at first. I'm planning on doing lots of whisky reviews with a few cigars, beers and maybe pipe tobaccos. This one doesn't really come under any of those categories. There's no point in "Aquavit review No. 1" if I never do a number two (hee hee). I decided it's "Spirit review No.1" because that leaves the door open to have a crack at tequila, brandy, gin, rum and whatever else might catch my attention in the future. I just realized that after I post this less than half the posts on my whisky tasting blog will be whisky reviews. Don't get too upset, I now have a bottle of 12 year old cask strength Springbank to peruse so that'll balance the equation in a few days when I've examined it thoroughly. Here comes the aquavit review. Brace yourselves, you're in for a rough ride....

Cigar review No.2 - Hawk 1968 Robusto

Here's another rather ill informed cigar review for you. I was going to wait a little while before ordering another cigar, maybe til my next payday, but I got a bit over-excited and before I knew what was happening I'd made another purchase from sigar.com. I enjoyed the Chess Maduro Corona I got for free with my last order and I read that fatter cigars have space in them for more leaves (makes sense) and can therefore have a more complex blend of tobacco. That sounded pretty interesting to me so I ordered a Chess Maduro Robusto. You get a small fee if your order is less than 300 kr (Håkon has to make a living after all) so I added another cigar to the order. I read somewhere that robustos are a good size to go for since pretty much every company produces a cigar in that size, it's thick enough to get a good mix of leaves and not the most expensive. I decided that's the size I'm going to try to stick with for now so I can explore the difference in the tobacco flavour and know it's the tobacco and not the size or shape that's causing the different tastes. Went for a Hawk 1968 because it's made in the same factory as Chess cigars, so the biggest difference should be the tobacco itself.

Whisky review No.2 - Talisker 10 yo Scotch

There's a lot of waffle at the start of this. Something about having a blog compells you to write about details of your life that no one else is interested in. I won't be offended if you scroll down to the tasting notes right away, they're about halfway down. There's two sets of notes because I added too much water to the first glass and had quite a different experience. I thought it might be interesting to include both to compare.

Trying to develop my palate a bit No.1

Just wanted to keep the content coming and since I'm not quite there with the Talisker review I thought I'd drop this one in. I was in the supermarket just now buying some smoked salmon to try with the Talisker and I saw these Norwegian sweets.

The future....

Just thought I'd do a quick post about what you can look forward to in the future when everything's chrome. "You" being my old friend Mr. Tiffen and PigHog from the straightrazorplace.com forums. I appreciate you both taking the time to read my waffle. If you're not either of those people I still appreciate you taking the time to read my waffle, but they're the only two I know about so far. Tell your friends, guys!

Cigar review No.1 - Don Tomas Maduro Robusto

My first cigar review already! It seems almost arrogant to be writing a review of what was only the third cigar of my life, but then I'm going to be sharing my own subjective experience, not an expert opinion based on years of experience. As I'm very new to cigars my equipment isn't the best you could get, and I wanted to show some pictures of my kit. There seems to be a fair bit of posing in the cigar world with all kinds of fancy accessories (which do look pretty awesome so it's fair enough I suppose) but I'm aiming to keep it about interesting flavours and aromas. Maybe it's because I'm British and traditionally cigar smoking in Britain has been about pleasure not status. Anyway, this is my setup at the moment:

My new blog!

I just started this incredibly exciting blog. I like to taste things. Good scotch whisky is probably my favourite thing to taste, but I'm just beginning to get interested in cigars and pipe tobacco. I also quite like cheese. In fact I like eating and drinking in general. The other day I mentioned to my old friend Mr. Tiffen that I was considering writing tasting notes for various things and he said he thought it would be an interesting blog. So here's the blog. I hope it's as interesting as my old friend Mr. Tiffen thinks it might be. I'll have a go at a whisky review later.