A Whiskey Recommendation

Who cares about whiskey? Big deal. One can buy a half-dozen decent brands at any store in Taiwan, including 7-11!

But why the hell is there no rum on this island? No one carries a single bottle (except Costco and they only have one choice, Bacardi light). I’m guessing Taiwanese are so damned phoney that they’ve got all these Macallans and Laraguellins and Grougalleans and other hoitey-toitey scotchs and whiskeys, because they think if they drink it they’ll appear sophisticated, the same as they think driving a black mercedes or drinking a starbucks will do, but they’ve never even heard of rum, it carries no status with them at all, so they’re not interested. Bunch of heathens.

Anyway, my Bacardi I picked up at Costco has run dry, so it looks like time for another Costco run since no one else can help me out. Pathetic.

I see Barcardi, Bacardi Gold, Bacardi 150 proof, some kind of dark rum – Capt. Morgan’s maybe? – in RT Mart, those Drinks chainstores, and various other places, I think. I don’t hardly drink rum here but any time I’ve wanted some its been easy enough to get.

You can even find Havana Club if you look hard enough.

I’ve seen Havana Club, too. Can’t recall where, though. I actually bought some in fact, for me mojitos.

how ironic.

I’ve got 2 1/2 bottles of it left.
I’ve been sipping it very, very slowly.
Haven’t seen, or really looked for it lately.

I’m currently having a glass of Black Velvet which is available at RTmart for 329ntd a bottle and as far as Canadian whiskey goes, this shit ain’t bad. It’s not technically a Rye but does contain some. This is the stuff you don’t think twice about when throwing back shots or drinking slowly over ice.

I doubt this is available anywhere in Taipei, although I guess it may be available in Tokyo. Or Shanghai…maybe. If you get the chance to snag a bottle and you like American whiskey, well, don’t mess it up Miss Rose Mary.

Cask strength, distilled at the Beam distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. ABV ranges from 62.5-64.0, depending on what the angels get. 6-8 years young.

Fuck a duck, bro, this is nice. I can certainly understand why America’s Scot immigrants vamoosed out of Pennsylvania following our Whiskey Rebellion: to pursue the art of distilling fine whiskey, ahem, perhaps consumption sans taxes instead, distillation of which anyway imo is probably damn near perfected here by Booker Noe of Jim Beam Distillery (albeit using cheap damn American corn instead of barley…which ain’t so cheap these days, btw…and charred oak instead of peat…although nowadays the Scots yearly buy a gazillion of Beam’s used American white oak barrels to feed their own angels).

Great, great, great American stuff, this Bookers. Work of culinary fine art, imo. You lawyers who make it back here now and then, heads up (or whoever).

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Who cares about whiskey? Big deal. One can buy a half-dozen decent brands at any store in Taiwan, including 7-11!

But why the hell is there no rum on this island? No one carries a single bottle (except Costco and they only have one choice, Bacardi light). I’m guessing Taiwanese are so damned phoney that they’ve got all these Macallans and Laraguellins and Grougalleans and other hoitey-toitey scotchs and whiskeys, because they think if they drink it they’ll appear sophisticated, the same as they think driving a black mercedes or drinking a starbucks will do, but they’ve never even heard of rum, it carries no status with them at all, so they’re not interested. Bunch of heathens.

Anyway, my Bacardi I picked up at Costco has run dry, so it looks like time for another Costco run since no one else can help me out. Pathetic.[/quote]

I’ve realized that I have a better ‘shopping experience’ and often save money by going to my favorite liquor store rather than the big chain stores. I go to a liquor store here in Kaohsiung and the prices are lower than Carrefore and Costco. Plus, they know me so that’s always fun. They know me VERY well. They have an outstanding scotch selection, but little in the way of bourbon. Makers Mark, yum. Been to their distillery. Apparently they sell their oak barrels to one of the big Scottish or Irish distilleries AFTER they’ve used them to age their brew. I can’t remember which one they sell to… I want to say Jamison but I may be wrong. Point is that the buyers want the flavor.

My point is, MT, that you can get all sorts of rum if you look hard enough.

Here’s something I was told recently, though it may only affect Kaohsiung. My liquor store told me that the importer of soda water was no longer importing. They can’t get it. If you’re in Kaohsiung, you’ll notice that Carrefore no longer sells soda water. It’s running out. That’s bad. Soda water good. No soda water bad. Why? Well, call me crazy, but…

Summer is coming quickly. And I know we all love our bourbon and scotch with ice and maybe some water, or maybe no ice and no water, whatever. But when it’s fucking HOT, nothing beats:

  1. Large glass with lots of ice.
  2. A healthy amount of booze. The normal selections would be vodka or gin, but believe it or not bourbon works wonderfully. JB works very well.
  3. 1/2 can of soda water
  4. LOTS of freshly squeezed lemon and/or kumquat juice. Fresh lemon is best (Taiwan green lemons are fantastic and cheap in season.) Squeeze the juice of an entire medium sized lemon.

This REQUIRES soda water. It’s just not the same with juice or water. You need that bubbly. It is SOOOOOOOOOO good.

And so… any entrepreneurs out there may want to look into picking up the import license for soda water.

tried a balvenie 15 yo today, very nice. will have to spring for the $2500 one day, lol.

Bourbon producers MUST use new oak barrels. That means an awful lot of used bourbon barrels to get rid of.

Scotch producers can use any barrels to age their product but prefer used oak. First, new oak imparts a strong woody taste that is not wanted in Scotch. A big part of the ‘tannin and vanilla’ profile you get in bourbon comes from new oak. Second, used oak barrels are also cheaper than new ones. The large quantities of used Bourbon barrels with no home make them the cheapest option around. Not only a used Bourbon barrels cheaper than new ones, they are also cheaper than alternatives like Sherry, Port, Rum and other barrels - all of which can keep being reused by their original owners.

Many Scotch purists also like used Bourbon barrels because they influence the final Scotch less than do used port or sherry barrels. Sherry or port barrel finished Scotches tend to be darker, heavier and sweeter, often with a sort of ‘fruitcake’ taste. Bourbon barrel finished Scotches tend to be lighter, with the characteristics of the original spirit shining through more clearly.

Nothing wrong with this Glengrant single malt for $500 I’d say

Theres a lot of decent scotch. I like OLD PARR among others. For bourbon JACK is the best period.

Except for the fact that Jack isn’t bourbon.

Will it is to me. And thats all that matters :raspberry: JUst because its charcoal filtered they want to distinguish it, but its still tenn mash.

Except for the fact that Jack isn’t bourbon.[/quote]

You’re damn right I’m not Bourbon. That’s disgusting.

For a good scotch, try Suntory

**Suntory Hibiki, the brand advertised by the washed-up actor played by Bill Murray in the film Lost in Translation, scooped the award for the world’s best blended whisky.

Isnt it funny that the best “china”’ is made in Japan and now the best scotch is too?

try the Suntory Yamazaki 15 year old for a very clean Japanese single malt, made in the old style in old tuns and stills.

Out of all the single malts I’ve tried recently I got around to getting a bottle of Glenfiddich 12yo and I think I enjoyed that the most. Crisp, just a hint of peat.

I want to put in plug for the liquor store on the corner of roosevelt and chaozhou, diagonally across from the mandarin daily news. nice prices, i.e. got a liter bottle of the above there for a nice $850.

Bourbon producers MUST use new oak barrels. That means an awful lot of used bourbon barrels to get rid of.

Scotch producers can use any barrels to age their product but prefer used oak. First, new oak imparts a strong woody taste that is not wanted in Scotch. A big part of the ‘tannin and vanilla’ profile you get in bourbon comes from new oak. Second, used oak barrels are also cheaper than new ones. The large quantities of used Bourbon barrels with no home make them the cheapest option around. Not only a used Bourbon barrels cheaper than new ones, they are also cheaper than alternatives like Sherry, Port, Rum and other barrels - all of which can keep being reused by their original owners.

Many Scotch purists also like used Bourbon barrels because they influence the final Scotch less than do used port or sherry barrels. Sherry or port barrel finished Scotches tend to be darker, heavier and sweeter, often with a sort of ‘fruitcake’ taste. Bourbon barrel finished Scotches tend to be lighter, with the characteristics of the original spirit shining through more clearly.[/quote]
What they told me at the Glenfiddich distillery tour was that the port barrels were mainly for colour; the Bourbon barrels for flavour (they use both). That might have been an oversimplification, though.