Whisky wonders: 5 awesome facts about this legendary spirit
A good drop of whisky is like floating through time. You feel your mind, body and senses lifted up and transported to artisanal times, where the quality of a thing was paramount to simply pumping it out for profit. You find yourself gazing down upon rollicking hills and lush meadows in a near-hallucinatory experience.
It’s for this reason that drinkers from Saporro to Scotland and all the way down to Sydney enjoy this fine beverage neat, on the rocks or as part of a refreshing cocktail. This is a spirit that simply cannot be matched by its contemporaries, with its fine aroma and smoky flavour warming the blood and giving unbridled joy to the senses.
And a drink with over 1,000 years of production perfection is bound to have a few interesting points of reference, the kind that could make you a peat professional every time you take a drop of the stuff.
Next time you buy Ardbeg whisky online you can take these five whisky wonders with you:
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It is one of the UK’s greatest exports
Even though fine Scotch is made in all the world’s extremities, drinkers still rely on the fine flavour and production perfection of a fine bottle of Scotch whisky. And it’s for this reason that Scotch accounts for roughly 20% of all UK food and drink exports in 2019.
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It has its own yeast strain
If there is one nation that puts production down to a fine art like the Scots themselves it is the Japanese. Suntory has long been a world favourite for various flavour profiles found amongst its three distilleries, and they have even gone so far as to create their own yeast strain: Suntoryeus Lactobacillus - that is a fine dedication to the craft.
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They don’t mind it in Kentucky, either
Bourbon whisky differs from Scotch, being made from corn mash to produce a slightlsy sweeter taste to the more refined palette you would find with Scotch. But that’s how the Americans like it, and so much so that roughly 95% of the world’s bourbon is produced right there in the state of Kentucky, home to the likes of Jim Beam, Knob Creek, Maker’s Mark - you name it, they probably make it there.
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The war hit them hard
You would have thought that Scotch production would have gone up during WWII but no - the soliders needed fuel and penicillin. Thankfully, distilleries turned out to be the perfect place to produce both these important products. As such, distilleries were converted to plants that could produce one or the either, potentially drying out many local bars hoping to drown the war gloom in a drop of the hard stuff.
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It’s constantly on-the-move
Didn’t we say this was a desired export all across the world? Scotch is a spirit on-the-go, with 42 bottles from shipped to all corners of the world every second of every waking day. That’s right, by the time you can say, “drop o’ the pure” around 84 bottles will be on its way to bars in Bolivia, the Bahamas, Belarus and Belgium.
What a fascinating old spirit this mighty beverage is. Revered and reviled in every manner imaginable, it comes as little wonder there are so many fun little facts to take with you for your next drop. And, what’s more, continue enjoying your journey towards Scotch gourmandism - you’ll find many more interesting tidbits along the way!
Zara Phillips
