Informal Tasting
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have been following this website for over a year and have finally had a good reason to post.

I plan on hosting a Scotch tasting tomorrow evening that will serve a dual purpose:
1) Introduce a few of my friends to different types of Scotch and hopefully teach a little about the differences (just for reference, this is the equivalent of a high school senior teaching 8th grade science, but the knowledge should suffice).
2) Finish off all my Scotch before moving back to America (currently I live in Japan).

Anyway, I plan on bringing Johnny Walker Black, Glenlivet 18, Glenlivet 16 Nadurra, Tomatin 12 (all <1/2 full), and a full bottle of Dewars White Label. I plan on the following order for tastings.

Johnny Black
Dewars White
Tomatin 12
Glenlivet 18
Glenlivet 16 Nadurra
Tomatin 12 (to again compare a decent entry scotch to some of the more refined expressions)
Knob Creek bourbon (for comparison only)

Of course, others may bring a few others, but has anyone hosted tastings before or has any advice for how to make this a smooth experience (i.e. ideal snacks, time between drinks - I am currently looking at about five minutes in between).

Thanks in advance for any help I get!

Just to follow up on this, about 12-15 people showed up and resulted in about 10 bottles of scotch. Everyone had a good time, but the next morning was...rough.

More info on your informal tasting....
 

Any feedback from your guests (and you) that you can share with us?

That's interesting. Single malt doesn't give me a hangover.

I usually don't either and it wasn't a bad hangover, but after glass #9 things got...hazy.




As for feedback, there were a lot of people who showed up that were not big scotch drinkers, but enjoyed a few brands nonetheless. The Glenlivet 16 Nadurra was the first bottle to be emptied. The one surprise was a buddy preferring Lahproaig 10 to any others - after only trying 1-2 Speysides.

As for me, I was reminded why I can't drink Islay. It just isn't for me.