Where teh hell is the drunk base?

[pinback]

Which one is easier to pour into an emptied water bottle that you can conveniently take with you?

[Billy Mays]

but you'll have a reference after trying it.

The Ardbeg's box cover says sea spray, tarry rope, immense smoky intensity. All they needed to add was an old pair of sneakers and a dong to complete my list of things I personally never want to have in my mouth. ICJ really sold me on it so I bought it anyways. I haven't tried it yet but I still have faith that he pointed me in the right direction.

[Billy Mays]

Ardbeg 10 Review

Ok, curiosity has finally gotten the best of me so I am going to experience what I purchased.

The packaging and bottle are nice. The emerald green glass is pleasant to look at and the box explains what non chill-filtered is so I don't have to google it. I'm a bit undecided regarding the plastic cap that tops the cork, on the one side it is a very practical addition but on the other side makes it look a bit cheap.

I poured a small amount into a glass using THE's pouring technique and noticed very little dribble, I believe these results can be improved with more practice. Smelling the glass for 20 minutes now I'm getting alcohol, a brush fire, and something mildly sweet and savory in the distant background that I'm having difficulties placing right now...like a fresh deer carcass. I wouldn't even be able to discern this as something meant to be drunk by humans had I not been the one to pour it and therefor knew its origin. All of that being said, the smell is absolutely mesmerizing, a mellowness brought into harmony with just the right amount of excitement. A mystery I can't wait to explore.

As the scotch rolls closer towards my mouth there is an elevation in my senses similar to being on a coaster right before it crests the first hill. As it touches my tongue the first thing I taste is pencil shavings, I roll it around on my tongue for a minute before swallowing and my initial dismay is immediately replaced with the feeling of awestruck at how buttery smooth it goes down! Spirits I've tried in the paste all tasted like a slap in the face where this is like a warm embrace on a cold winter night. It is simply breathtaking. Subsequent sips open my palate up and the initial pencil shavings taste is now oak, pine needles, smoked beef brisket, a hint of caramel in the background, a refreshing saltiness, and other flavors I have yet to discover. There is a complexity to the flavor that is difficult to describe, which further adds to the intrigue, but it all goes down so incredibly smooth.

In conclusion, the Ardbeg 10 is easily the best thing I have ever had in my entire life and I would like to thank ICJ for his recommendation.

[Billy Mays]

I just finished my first glass of Ardbeg scotch, I would estimate that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of one and a half ounces, and I feel completely relaxed and rejuvenated. It has been a completely harmonious and rewarding experience that I look forward to enjoying again sometime in the future. I will be calling it quits on the drinking for today and I don't foresee it being part of a regular routine, but I do find it incredibly comforting to know that I have something I can use to help take the edge off when necessary. I can't stress enough how grateful I am to everybody here who helped me get to this point.

[AArdvark]

I just finished my first glass of Ardbeg scotch

I will be calling it quits on the drinking for today

You're just out of the starters blocks and you're calling it quits? Where would..Jessee Owens be if he quit after only one drink while racing the nazis in Berlin? Where would uh, that one-ball bicycle racer guy be if he quit after one.....

Ok enough with the hack metaphors. So, did you taste sea spray and tarry rope along with the other flavors? I wonder if the box blurb is accurate. I guess it wouldn't sell as well with pencil shavings as a tasting note.

THE
NUMBER 2
AARDVARK

[Billy Mays]

The pencil shavings was only for my first sip, they were no longer present as the flavor profiles opened up for the subsequent sips. I've never tasted tarry ropes so I'm not sure and I felt sea spray was used a bit romantically. There were, however, refreshingly mild saltiness tones to the drink.

The main flavors were smokiness, whatever flavor would be associated if pine needles tasted like they smelled (crisp and spicy), a subtle savory sweetness in the background, and I'm going to have to say peat (even though I don't know what peat is) since it was described by the two scotch guys here as heavily peaty...ok, I just looked up what peat is and while the idea of adding it to a drink confuses me, I quite enjoyed whatever flavor it was. There were other flavors, but mainly I would describe it as masculine and earthen. Nothing was overpowering and it all came together for a really enjoyable experience and most importantly went down incredibly smooth.

This was not the first time I had scotch before, a friend of mine from a while back gave me some Johnnie Walker and all I remember was that it tasted like sweaty feet and went down like a mouth full of razor blades.

I never planned to get hammered with it, just something to have a nice drink every now and then. I plan on buying a bottle of Macallan like THE suggested because it looks like it could fun.

[Billy Mays]

Come to think of it, maybe the pencil shavings were the tarry rope? Either way, they only manifested on the initial sip and later transformed into more pleasant oaken hints that I interpreted as from the aging barrels and even then that flavor took a back seat to the more dominant notes.

[Billy Mays]

Also, I keep get this thought in my mind of Flack reading this what the actual fuck conversation while drinking something that tastes like marshmallows or lemonade and thinking to himself "fucking lunatics". Maybe I'm wrong?

[The Happiness Engine]

Peat is everywhere in Scotland so the water soaks through it and then they smoke the barley over it because they don't have trees. "Peaty" just means "smoky" in general. For your next glass try adding a teaspoon of cold water and note the differences in flavor vs neat. My personal preference is 3-4oz scotch and one small ice cube, which is heretical, but I find scotch best slightly under room temperature and with a bit of water, since straight 80 proof will numb your tongue to flavors FAST.

Macallen replaces most of the smoke with some fruit. If you like Ardbeg you like scotch and now you can explore the differences in single-malts. A glass before bed now and again while contemplating the day is a completely dignified moment.

Pinback: the best thing to sip discreetly from a plastic bottle is half vodka, half gatorade but I know that you have known that for decades.

[The Happiness Engine]

Peat is everywhere in Scotland so the water soaks through it and then they smoke the barley over it because they don't have trees. "Peaty" just means "smoky" in general. For your next glass try adding a teaspoon of cold water and note the differences in flavor vs neat. My personal preference is 3-4oz scotch and one small ice cube, which is heretical, but I find scotch best slightly under room temperature and with a bit of water, since straight 80 proof will numb your tongue to flavors FAST.

Macallen replaces most of the smoke with some fruit. If you like Ardbeg you like scotch and now you can explore the differences in single-malts. A glass before bed now and again while contemplating the day is a completely dignified moment.

Pinback: the best thing to sip discreetly from a plastic bottle is half vodka, half gatorade but I know that you have known that for decades.

[The Happiness Engine]

So this is the PERFECT Place to note:
"Post review
At least one new post has been made to this topic. You may wish to review your post in light of this."

It might want to show me that post and also maybe note that it was MY OWN FUCKING CLICK.

[AArdvark]

Tonight! Tequila shots, in a hand blown shooter. A friend went to Mexico a long time ago and brought it back. I mean, they make Volkswagens there so I guess it's no big deal, right? Well, I like it.





So I keep getting these small charges from Amazon Digital Services every month. I Google it and see that Amazon Kindle services has this sneaky backdoor charge that they don't tell you about. It lets you access the entire Amazon/Kindle library but you automatically enroll when you buy a digital book and they don't tell you! So after I bought 'The Human Duplicators' by a known Pulitzer Prize winner I start seeing these small monthly charges to my account. Huh. I opted to call them but noooo! Amazon has a place for you to enter your phone number and they'll call you back. Right. So I wen to live chat, always a fun thing after tequila shots on St. Patrick's eve.
Well, first I chatted with Manmeet ( I swear I'm not making this up!) I can only hope he got beat up a lot in junior high. After I stopped tequila giggling* I explained the problem and he turned me over to ......to....well, here, I saved some of the text file.

Hello, my name is Seethalakshmi. Please give me a moment to review the previous correspondence.

I explained to squeeze-my-salami that I'm being charged this small fee every month and could you please make it stop. She (and I am only assuming it's a she) looked it up and explained back that it's one of my wife's streaming services.

I sheepishly thanked her (not that she could tell) and asked her to have a nice twenty-four hour cycle and logged off.



THE
CUSTOMER BOTTLE SERVICE
AARDVARK


*tequila giggling happens mostly to women, after they go through the pointless lick-salt, drink-shot, bite-lime thing. It happend to me the first time I ever saw someone with a name that looks like it's pronounced 'man-meat'.

[AArdvark]

Saw this at the grocery store and thought of Wolverine dreams.





THE
FREDDY KRUGER
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'll have a small lite beer

[Flack]

Tonight! Tequila shots, in a hand blown shooter. A friend went to Mexico a long time ago and brought it back. I mean, they make Volkswagens there so I guess it's no big deal, right? Well, I like it.

I'll be in Mexico in 48 hours. If I see another one, I'll grab you one. And me one. ONE FOR EVERYBODY! OLE!

[Billy Mays]

"Peaty" just means "smoky" in general. For your next glass try adding a teaspoon of cold water and note the differences in flavor vs neat.

Cool, thank you for the explanation! Do you have any idea what tarry rope means?

I knew about adding a spoonful of water to open up the flavor from watching ralfy videos in preparation for this moment (that's how I knew to smell it before tasting it), but was a little apprehensive to do so with the Ardbeg because I was perfectly happy with where it was currently at and worried that adding waters would take its unique flavors over the limit. I will add water to the Ardbeg once I become more familiar with it and definitely add water to the Macallan in the traditional manor after trying it without since it is more fruity.

Also, I wasn't sure what type of water to add or what temperature it should be at when adding it? Tap, distilled, spring, special scotch diluting water?

Ardbeg 10 is non chill-filtered to 92 proof.

[AArdvark]

Add dehydrated water!

It fizzes!

[Billy Mays]

You're just out of the starters blocks and you're calling it quits?

So I've been doing some research and discovered I've got two things wrong so far.

The first is I need to go out and purchase a Glencairn, I thought the small table glass I had used originally was adequate for a beginner scotch drinker like myself but I was completely wrong. I may as well be pouring the scotch on the floor and then lapping it up like a dog. I really wanted an Old Fashioned (Chandler, not Archer...ok, also Archer) but the Glencairn is the only way to go here it appears.

The second is my original drinking schedule, I thought scotch would last nearly forever but it turns out that an opened bottle of scotch stored in an ideal environment with the cork on and regular maintenance performed has an upper limit of 2 years. And that this shelf life once opened diminishes exponentially the less scotch there is in the bottle since it also allows for more air to enter. 2 years for a bottle with just a drink or two removed but only 6 months for half a bottle. Down to 1 month once towards the end. I plan on getting the remaining 3 bottles recommended to me today, the average glass of scotch is 2 ounces, there is just shy of 25 and a half ounces per bottle so about 12 average drinks per bottle, a little basic math and that means at the halfway mark for my four bottles (assuming I get there around the same time) I will have to average 2 drinks per week. Not a big deal right? Well since shelf life diminishes exponentially (2 years for an almost full bottle, 6 months for half a bottle, etc) and you have to factor in how long it took you to get to your half bottle mark, getting there in a week there would have to be considerably more shelf life left in it than if you dragged your feet and got there in 18 months...At some point it will become a race against the clock where I am knocking back 1 or 2 drinks a night instead of my originally planned 1 drink every week or two.

Now you can use paraffin wax to reseal the bottle but that just seems silly unless you have some super sentimental bottle you're saving.

Yum, yum, yum, I love scotch.

[Billy Mays]

I just returned from the liquor store where I purchased a bottle of Glenlivet 12, Macallan 12, and Laphroaig 10. I was unable to find a Glencairn at a number of different stores I went to but was able to purchase a nice Old-Fashioned which will have to do until my package arrives in the mail. For the water I went with Nestle Pure Life. Reviews to come.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[AArdvark]

it turns out that an opened bottle of scotch stored in an ideal environment with the cork on and regular maintenance performed has an upper limit of 2 years.

Huh. I would have never known that.


THE
SIX WEEKS MAX
AARDVARK