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Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Bilge

Is Scots Whusky Tiki?

Pages: 1 15 replies

HJ

Looking back on the history of the South Pacific, et al, it seems cheap sailor treacle rum was common, if for no other reason than to kill the microbes in the ship's water casks.

But when a seafarin' man set foot on island sand, he wanted a glass of Scots Whusky, straight up, at the nearest seaman's drinking establishment.

What chas think?

I loves me a good single malt! Glenmorangie, Highland Park, Balvenie, Laphroiag, et al!

J

Actually I do prefer Bourbon to Rum.

P

Balvenie is now finishing some of its whiskey in rum casks. I picked up a bottle of Golden Cask at duty free in Santiago. I passed on a Moai Pisco (not capel, a pisco brand called "Moai" in a much cooler Moai bottle than the Capel) for it.

W

Interesting question. Think I'll have a wee glass of Laphroaig and mull it over.

H

On 2010-10-07 23:18, woofmutt wrote:
Interesting question. Think I'll have a wee glass of Laphroaig and mull it over.

Have you (or anyone else here) tried their Quarter Cask? If so, how is it? It sounds intriguing.

I love the smell of Peat in the morning.

(Apocalypse Now rip off)

Hey!
Peat is a moss/soil by the way! :)

W

*Have you (or anyone else here) tried their Quarter Cask? *

I just heard about it, so no. (But I do have some friends I could drop a serious hint on for Christmas...)

Peat is a soil by the way!

Soil on its way to being coal.

T
twitch posted on Fri, Oct 8, 2010 5:21 AM

I say no - no, it isn't tiki. It rubs elbows with it on a small boat, tho'.
I once made a mai tai using whiskey instead of rum & I nearly thew up, many times, until I finished it.

On 2010-10-07 22:16, JOHN-O wrote:
Actually I do prefer Bourbon to Rum.

And I prefer Rye to bourbon. It is more crisp and dry and taste a hell of a lot better in an Old Fashion then bourbon.

Now, to make here a solid TIKI point about alternative tiki spirits. The Old Fashioned might be considered a true tiki drink if you think about it from a sailor's point of view. Many sailors, or so I have been lead to understand, were quartered in San Diego after WW11. And apparently, they loved Old Fashions, so much so, that the Old Fashioned is still served as a San Diego specialty in many San Diego establishments. And since these same sailors happened to have developed a taste for this drink after running around the Pacific, I think it is possible to presume that rye is an authentic drink of South Pacific American sailors, the same sailors who helped to make tiki what it was after the Big One. I need to qualify here that Rye is indeed the proper spirit for making an Old Fashioned fashionable.

So, am I on solid ground?


You know what? I'm going to light up, right here, right now, and smoke!

[ Edited by: telescopes 2010-10-15 21:34 ]

No. But your footing is good.

I think your argument would qualify the Old Fashion as a nautical drink if there were such classification.

For true Tiki drinks I think a simple test might be:

Would this drink evoke a sense of a South Pacific tropical paradise?

In the case of the Old fashion I'd have to say no.

If you wanted to judge a drink's Tikiness based on it's importance in the golden age of Tiki you could include a large number of drinks under the Tiki umbrella.

The consumption of "regular" drinks was probably fairly high at Tiki joints back in the day. You can lead an indifferent husband to a Tiki bar but you can't make him not drink his standard scotch and soda.

But I think it would be goofy to attempt to argue that scotch and soda are a Tiki drink. Even if the scotch in question had a sailing ship on its label.

PS: I like rye as well and discovered that sipping a rye neat while drinking a lowly American swilsner actually makes the swilsner taste like a well thought out beer.

P
phinz posted on Sat, Oct 16, 2010 6:31 PM

Have you (or anyone else here) tried their Quarter Cask? If so, how is it? It sounds intriguing.

I have two bottles in the bar, as well as Laphroaig 10 year, Laphroaig Distiller's Edition, Laphroaig Cask Strength, several Ardbegs, Dalwinnie, Bunnahabhain, Lagavulin, Macallan, Aberlour, Abunadh, Benriach, Glengoyne, Glenlivet Nadurra, Glenlivet Cask Strength and assorted other single malts. I have a particular weakness for Islay malts, but don't turn my nose up at others.

Your bar sounds like one hell of a bar but I missed the details as to when the party's happening and where your house is.

Don't listen to Woof,
the bastard still owe's me a couple of shots of single malt.

HJ

That freakin' settles it. thanks, youse folks.

Scots whusky is sufficiently Tiki, especially so if drunk from the bottle, from a crate salvaged from a shipwreck or stolen from a ship.

And drunk out of a cheap glass, most likely neat.

Pourin' a shot, now.

Pages: 1 15 replies