Whiskey is not Whisky

We shall begin with the simple premise that I am “a bit slow on the draw,” as the saying goes.  I often fail to pay attention to important details.  Over the years my friends and family have learned to advantage my mild form of idiocy by having me open bags of chips and boxes of whatnots.  I am apparently funny to watch.  I tear apart the wrong end or pretty much dismantle the packaging while ignoring the instructions on “easy opening.”  At the grocery, I have largely given up on opening the plastic bags dispensed from the rollers at the produce section.  If we further consider that I pronounced rotisserie as “row-tiss-er-rare-ee” until finally corrected about ten years ago, everyone will grasp how I skip right through details at all levels of human pursuit.

Now, just yesterday, I discovered that whiskey is not the same as whisky.  Mind you, this is not one of those snooty proper English snits that has seen Americans pit color against colour or flavor against flavour.  Whiskey and whisky are not merely separated by a suspiciously missing “e”.    These two beasts are justly separated by a kind of distilling gulf.

Here we go.

Whiskey is generally distilled in Kentucky or Tennessee (USA) and is made mostly from corn mash aged in new oak barrels.  Whisky, more commonly called Scotch, is distilled primarily from malted barley in Scotland.  Scotch is aged in barrels previously used for aging American Bourbon whiskey.

Additionally, in my way of thinking, whiskey tastes like licking the seal of a one-hundred-year-old envelope.  Scotch whisky, however, tastes like a day of lying against a green mountainside while sheep graze in a nearby meadow after you just finished French-kissing someone you deeply love.   

Irish whiskey is yet again another beast…a rifle and a fistfight may be required for explanation.   I will look into the details for you.

 

--Mitchell Hegman

Thanks, Ariel.