Two Drink Minimum; The After 5 Cocktail Blog

In lieu of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday, I have decided to give you guys the skinny on whiskey. Whiskey seems to be one of those things in life that you either love or hate. Strong, bold and smooth, whiskey remains one of the top alcohols after all these years. So read on and check it out….

Whisky (Scottish Gaelic: uisge-beatha), or whiskey (Irish: uisce beatha or fuisce), refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden casks (generally oak).

Different grains are used for different varieties, including: barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn). Whisky derives from the Gaelic word for “water” (uisce or uisge), and is called in full uisge-beatha (in Scotland) or uisce beatha (Ireland), meaning “Water of Life”. It is related to the Latin aqua vitae, also meaning “water of life”. It is always Scotch whisky, and Irish whiskey.

The first written record of whisky comes from 1405 in Ireland, where it was distilled by monks.[1] It is also mentioned in Scotland in 1496. However it is thought that whisky had already been around for at least several hundred years prior. When or where whisky was first distilled is unknown and the local, undocumented beverage production during the period makes identification of the drink’s origin difficult. Additionally, it is possible that different groups discovered processes of distillation completely independently of one another.

Some scholars believe distilled spirits were first produced between the 8th century AD and 9th century AD in the Middle East with the art of distillation being brought to Ireland and Britain by Christian monks. A popular legend is that St. Patrick introduced distillation to Ireland and Britain; however it is likely he lived around the 5th century AD. It is also possible that the distillation process was discovered in Ireland and possibly Britain (either independently or in precursor to Arabian distillation) by farmers as a way of making use of excess grain after harvest.

~ Great Whiskey Cocktails ~

Godfather
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Scotch
- 1 oz Amaretto
Glassware : Old-Fashioned Glass

Black Jack
- 2 oz Scotch
- 1 oz Lemon Juice
- 1 1/2 oz Kahlua
- 1 oz Triple Sec
Glassware: Cocktail Glass
Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Jack Frost Manhattan
Ingredients:
- 2 parts Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey
- 1 part Peppermint Schnapps
- 1/4 part sweet vermouth
Garnish: maraschino cherry
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with cherry.

Scotch Cooler
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky
- 1/2 oz vanilla liqueur
- 2 dashes bitters
Garnish: cherry
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice and stir. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a cherry. (Created by Dale DeGroff, New York, NY)

Scotch Old-Fashioned
- 2 oz Scotch
- 1/2 oz Water
- 1/2 tsp Superfine Sugar
- 1 dash Bitters
- Garnish: Lime Wedge
Glassware: Old-Fashioned Glass
Dissolve superfine sugar in scotch. Combine bitters and water, superfine sugar and scotch in an old fashioned glass over crushed ice. Add 151 proof rum and garnish with lime wedge.

B55
Ingredients:
- 1 oz Sebor Absinth
- 1 oz Irish Cream
- 1 oz Kahlua
In a shot glass, carefully layer (in this order) Kahlua, Baileys and Sebor Absinth.

Everybody’s Irish
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Irish Whiskey
- 1 oz Creme de Menthe (green)
- 1 oz Chartreuse (green)
- Garnish: Cocktail Olive
Glassware : Cocktail Glass
Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an olive.

Rob Roy
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz Scotch whisky
- 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
- a dash of Angostura bitters
- Garnish: Cherry
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with cherry.

History of Rob Roy:
Rob Roy was created by a bartender at The Waldorf Hotel in New York in 1894. It was first mixed for the opening night of an opera called “Rob Roy.” The recipe first appeared in The Savoy Book, published by The Savoy Hotel of London in 1930. Having Scotch whisky as a base spirit of the cocktail, the book carried a note indicating that the cocktail was already popular among Scots, “particularly for St. Andrew’s day to open the evening for the usual enormous annual gathering of the Clans at the Savoy.”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Beer, wine, Drinking, Whiskey, Mojito, Brandy, Food and Drink, parties, Weblogs, Travel, alcohol, bar, cocktail, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.