What’s Your Poison? Whiskey. Why?
UP magazine has a new feature, Top Ten Tuesdays and this week we picked out the top ten events from last week. One of them was of course ‘An Evening with Chivas’ at Sankara Hotel. Once the whiskey tasting was mentioned, the UP offices were divided between those who think whiskey is ambrosia fit only for gods and those who think it tastes like paint thinner with a hint of hydrochloric acid. We asked various UP readers why they loved whiskey or attended whiskey-tasting parties in order to solve the debate. The answers we got were pretty varied and some we never really expected. When Junior (last name withheld) told us his whiskey drinking was a class thing we had to ask him to elaborate. “Drinking whiskey half the time is about appearance, you look good drinking it and it really just isn’t for anyone” he told us, “however that’s not the only reason I drink it, I also like it over ice because aside from the amazing taste, I know I can have a cold Heineken towards the end of the night and not expect to thro up my guts all over my dance floor.”
This is in complete contrast to Onyango who calls whiskey drinkers “uppity drinkers who pretend they’re better than everyone else while they swig at what’s essentially dragon piss”. He goes on to tell us that the only excuse for drinking whiskey would be you getting a promotion and your boss insists on having a glass o celebrate or if someone paid you 1000 Ksh per shot, Ksh 10 000 if it’s the expensive swill like Johnny Walker Blue Label. Alice however thinks people like Onyango probably haven’t tried to drink whiskey the right way “If you go to the bar counter order a double shot of Jameson then down it right there and then you aren’t drinking whiskey, you’re abusing it. Take your glass, inhale, take a sip and then exhale. Trust me, you’ll get the best out of that whiskey, both in taste and experience.”
The best answer we got from you guys, was from Njoroge, a city doctor who travels back and forth to Canada. “I went to a scotch tasting - this particular one was a Macallan sponsored event that I found out about through my university’s alumni group. I think learning about the history of scotch, it’s ingredients, and how it’s made really added to my enjoyment of the drinks. I found out about a Johnnie Walker tasting through a friend a few months later and really enjoyed that one, too and most recently was at another Macallan tasting. All were in really inviting atmospheres that discouraged all the stuffy snobby things you generally think about scotch and talked about mixing and different ways of drinking and allowed me to taste an array of scotches in a variety of ways. If you can find one of these events near you, I highly recommend it.”
So what about you? Do you enjoy your whiskey on the rocks neat or not at all?
