With the gathering between me and Andy is getting lesser these 3 years, average once a year, I was stunned with his collection of malts during the last time we met. Deeply amazed to be frank!!!

Due to a personal reason of Andy, he can’t display his collection proudly in the living room. I understood why, well dude, splendid collection are meant for keeping to youself (and me) only… too dangerous to be under the spotlight in my opinion!!!

He first showed me some books about whisky he had purchased and some issues of “The Whisky Magazine” he had followed, what more can I say? It seems that you know your stuff! I was then invited to his bedroom, with thrill and excitement as I’ve always curious what kind of collection he had built up for himself after all these years. There is this 2 well-constructed large wooden box at the corner of the room, next to his bed, how you wish you can sleep with them everyday right? hah~! By the way, I wonder how the hell he managed to bring them upstairs anyway???

As he open both “treasure” boxes of his, I was granted to have “free roaming” on all his bottles… haha~ I am a kid in candy store, period!

Let’s see what’s in the candy store, CR RS 21, ruby, sapphire and emerald, hmmm… Wait a minute, SIGNET !!! a bday gift from wife… wow… pure envy dude!  the Glenmorangie range available now including all 3 extra mature, private collection & some old bottling of wood finish, he is just short of Quarter Century (too expensive IMO) and Finealta (just launch) still… whoooaaaahhhhh!!! old bottles of Bowmore,  1991 vintage 16 YO port matured, how the hell you found this Penang? what else we have here? Coal Ila, Talisker, Glenfiddich, Famous Grouse 30 YO, some Macallan, not the fine oak though, glad you listen to me dude, only the sherry oak series are worth to try… Ardbeg 10 YO, Uigeadail, 1990 Airigh Nam Beist, now we are talking!!!

Well, of course it’s not entirely about the Scotchs, there are some rums too, courtesy of ahhup, again , some Champagne… M&C, glad we love the same brand… oh ya, and some Bourbon. Dude, you should really thank me for owning the Ron del Barrilito and Bacardi Reserva Limitada which might be the only 2 in Penang, and just maybe, Malaysia too.

Above are the some bottles that Andy wanted me to drink and review with him, J&B, Canadian Club, Famous Grouse, Jameson, a Korean blend name Scotch Blue, the Macallan 18 1990 vintage and Smokehead are new bottle, I told him to keep the Macallan though, because I wish to try a bottle of Bourbon, hence we took a new bottle of Wild Turkey 8, yeah! always wanted to try that… What more can you ask for???

Not bad at all, big on nose and flavour, however, need some breathing, will try to get a bottle of my own and review.

An “average Joe” single malt, nothing much on nose and palate, clean and short aftertase.

Worst malt of the night, unpalateble, unripe spirit. The Whisky Magazine did not help in improving the drinks anyway…

I’m glad that Andy never stop and still searching and exploring in the world of malts, and truely happy that he is able to built up his collection based on his own preference and the knowledge he had. That’s the way to go dude!

Lastly, just to share, there is a phrase that we alway remind each other,

“能喝,不一定会喝”

“can drink, may not know how to drink”

Think about it…

ahhup

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I knew Andy back in my secondary school days, but it was towards graduation we started to get close and were able to keep in touch even though I went Singapore for further study while he pursue his locally.

We share lots of things in common, but to keep to the theme of this blog, I would like to share the what me and Andy consider the ultimate enjoyment in life… please refer to the picture below if you are not sure of what I am saying.

Back to the study days in Singapore, I used to go back Penang during most of the term break, and we will meet up, grab some beers and catch up with each other. Well, still a student, we don’t have much budget to drink out, so 9 out of 10 we will just get dozen of beers, stock in the fridge of my house and start our drinking session at night. Though no picture were taken during our gathering (no phone with cam, and certainly no digicam), I miss those days a lot, no much worries, the sole focus is just on academic. Conversation was mostly on girls, some funny and stupid things we did, gossip… all ended with good laughter.

As both of us graduated, we headed 2 different ways; he’s into business while I am in the “blue collar”. Still, we kept in touch as usual. There was one occasion where I’m inside the airport deciding on a bottle of whisky for dad (he is a big fan of malts), I got my first bottle of single malt, Glenfiddich 18 YO. Not an out-standing choice to be frank, but it’s enough to drive me into the wonderful worlds of spirits. Extensive studies on all sorts of spirits available were done ever since. Well, I do have some interest in spirits before that, tried some vodka, tequila, gin, rum, American Bourbon & Tennessee, Irish, blended malts… but with very little knowledge on them.

I still remember that the first sipping spirit I ever intro to Andy, the Bacardi 8 rum, he fell in love instantly! Soon, we share the same passion for 3 drinks, Whisky, Rum & Champagne. Every time I am back to Penang, it’s me with a bottle of XXX and says “dude, you got to try this…” Just like back in the colleague days, we gathered to drink and chat at night whenever I am back, however, as the liquid in our glass is getting more “posh”, our conversation is getting emotional at the same time, career, frustration, worries, financial, politics, prospect… let’s not too carried away with this.

The above picture is a small little “rest & recreation” corner that I helped Andy to set up in his office, as you can see, some rums, malts and beers… and of course, 2 hand cut crystal glass, courtesy of ahhup. We have awfully same taste buds when come to drinks, if the drink is not up to my liking, I can forget about sharing it with him. There was once Andy told me, “you should know how much I spent of glassware”, I replied him “well, you can keep the figure to yourself, while I keep mine” This is how persistent we are in glassware to maximize the enjoyment.

As much as we love to drink, we have 2 strict rules to follow when come to this, first, NO DRINK AND DRIVE, because we believe in drink responsibly and second, DRINK IN MODERATION. The later have a story behind, there was once we were having this new bottle of CR 18, awesome malt by the way, as shown in the above picture; we have the idea of finishing the bottle in that night. Well, we achieved it, with me woke up and vomited around 4am in the morning, while he have horrible hangover the next day. Me? Just a little, may be due to the ability to vomit. The most important thing is both came to a conclusion that this is not the way to enjoy any alcohol. I know lots of people whom always love to drink over their limit, well, what’s the point of doing that? I once saw a guy lying dead drunk on the street side near pubs and discos, with his head soak in big pile of vomit (my best guess is the vomit belongs to him, you?) trust me, drinking will not get any more exciting than this…  

So, with the 2 strict rules, where we end up drinking? Well, either his place or mine. Whenever we hit the limit, bedrooms are just steps away… Of course, with the exceptional malt collection in our place, let’s continue in part 2

ahhup

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Have fun trying after watching the video, Drop by Malt Vault in Singapore for some interesting whisky collection.

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I have been thinking to mix drinks with lemon… not that I want to be a bartender or anything but thinking to mix the taste with lemon. As lemon play a big part in food chemistry, I bet it play a big part in drink chemistry as well.

So first stop I try it with lemon and whisky. To be exact is Jack Daniel as the cheapest whisky at the bar. It was a surprise. The taste come out better that I thought. The sweet aroma and the citrus sour make the whisky more palatable.

The lemon actually balance up the taste. The aroma of the blend also balance up and to my surprise it actually have a light hint of banana comfort aroma on the nose. Is a very successful mixture that surprise to the palate. I was quite satisfy with the mixed.

Second stop we try with brandy. But we play with 2 different style, one is just adding the lemon drops and the other we add in the zest while flaming the brady.

The adding of the juice did not give any lemon character to the brandy until certain amount that are not favourable to brandy.

As for the zest and flaming, the conclusion are better but is not worth the effort. The reason is too much hassle, may as well make a cocktail out of it. The zest give a citrus aroma to the brandy but is not worth while to do.

Third stop is even more adventures. An espresso with lemon squeeze. The end product is the espresso is too strong, no hint of lemon on the nose and sour taste to the coffee. It create an easier palate to down, but the coffee aroma is too strong to let the lemon to gain any foot hold on it. So this experiment failed big time.

Conclusion
There’s not much conclusion, I was just playing around with ideas with CK (Mayfair’s Bartender). Stirring the idea from my mind how lemon can enhance more taste out of the drinks that normally people will blend with coke and green tea.

Of course not the coffee. The coffee is just to try out how lemon can effect strong taste. But I’m glad to conduct this experiment. It gives a different perspective to taste which really bring up a few notch. If you guys try any good blend which I should give it a go, please let me know. Cheers!

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This Maker’s Mark is small batch bourbon whiskey from Kentucky. The bottle is interestingly squarish and sealed with red wax, classic.

Color: orangy copper

Nose: on neat (strong gas-like smell, woody, subtle fruity, a hint of iodine), more flavor, less strong after mixing with a lil water.

Body: dry, thin and flavorful, smooth

Palate: caramel, vanilla-like taste, peatiness prevailed down the throat though just subtly

Finish: a warm tingle, spiciness, fruity and floral finish, subtly sourish in the end

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