Whiskey with ice seems like a classic combination, a drink of true gentlemen and fearless cowboys. However, this impression is formed only among fans of Westerns and Bond movies. True connoisseurs of elite alcohol consider it blasphemous to dilute good alcohol with ice, and there are good reasons for such a point of view.
What kind of whiskey is drunk with ice. In short, tasteless and cheap. If a drink cannot boast of an exquisite bouquet, it has nothing to lose except for excessive strength, and sometimes an unpleasant aftertaste. Ice helps to hide these shortcomings – the water that appears during melting reduces the strength, and cooling softens the taste and smooths out the “alcohol” aroma, allowing the bouquet to somehow open up.
Feel free to add frozen cubes to the glass if you drink:
- Bourbon (American corn whiskey).
- Blended grain whiskey (except deluxe class).
It is not recommended to dilute single malt whiskey, because the drink will irrevocably lose notes of vanilla, peat, old leather, caramel. Balanced, verified by the best distillers, the taste will deteriorate, and the whiskey itself will become supercooled, which will adversely affect the aroma and taste.
According to the legend, the bartenders came up with the tradition of adding ice to whiskey – this way you can underfill the client with alcohol, but visually the portion size will not change.
How to drink whiskey with ice
If you definitely want to lower the fortress, use still water for this, and add it after the second sip. The same applies to ice – try the “clean” drink first, and only then throw the cubes into the glass.
The Scots believe that the only excuse for ice in a glass is summer heat, but such weather is much rarer in their lands than ghosts in family castles, so even average scotch is usually drunk undiluted.
Tips:
- The size of the cubes matters: ice chips melt faster and dilute the drink more, while large pieces of ice simply cool the whiskey with minimal impact on taste.
- Do not use old ice that has been frozen for several months.
- Make cubes from quality water – for example, non-carbonated mineral water.
It is better to drink whiskey with ice in the afternoon, in the late afternoon, in a comfortable environment among loved ones. The canonical “appetizer” is limited to smoking a good cigar, but you can serve cheeses, a meat plate, even dark chocolate or hot dishes with grain whiskey or bourbon. Make sure that the temperature of the drink is in the range of 10 to 18 degrees: too frozen alcohol loses its taste, and excessively warm alcohol “beats the nose” with alcohol vapors.
What is Double Whiskey
It is logical to assume that this is the name of a double portion, the question is different – how much it will be in milliliters.
It all depends on the bar or the owner of the house, but historically, one and a half ounces – that is, 45 ml – are considered the standard measure. Accordingly, a double whiskey is 90 ml. In restaurants, the value can be rounded up to 100.
The tradition appeared in American bars, but there is no strong correlation: a double portion is more profitable and more convenient, especially if the evening is planned to be long, and this does not depend on the country. A double iced whiskey is served and drunk in exactly the same way as a standard one and a half ounce serving.
