"A Drop of Water to Wake It Up" 
Taught to me by a gentleman with a palate to die for, he was the chief blender for a major distillery for over 30 years, and actually carried a flask of water with him, as his palate was so advanced he could taste the differences in regional water !! Thus by using his own water all the time he would only taste the differences in the whisky.
He would ALWAYS, without fail, add about 25% water and leave it for 2-3 minutes before drinking, to allow the esters to react with the water and allow the full flavour and bouquet of the whisky to be released.
He told me that to drink it neat was a waste of the skill of the distiller as you would miss all the subtleties and nuances within the drink.
Since then I try to do the same
That's the right way!
Never, never, never drink neat whisky over ice - you lose all the bouquet, and you just taste the alcohol.
I hate to disagree with everyone else, but I just don't like single malts as rule. There are some absolutely fantastic blended whiskys about and, for me, they are far superior to most of the single malts.
The good blended stuff is definitely not cheap, so I only buy it very rarely, or sometimes I might get some as a birthday or Christmas present if the kids can't think of anything else. I'm particularly partial to Johnny Walker Black Label, but Chivas Regal and Dimple Haig go down well. For something slightly cheaper, J&B is quite acceptable. Note that all of these are very pale coloured whisky - the darker blends have too much malt in them for my taste.
Mostly, though, I drink the cheapest supermarket blends well drowned with ice-cold Diet Coke - 2 parts coke to 1 part whisky, in a tall glass. The beauty of that tipple is that you can easily substitute cheap vodka, gin or rum for cheap whisky without any noticeable loss of taste.
I like a drop of Cognac now and again, but the good stuff is far too pricey for the likes of me.
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Topic: Whisky (Read 7396 times)