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Those "whiskies" go great as a hot toddy. 2 oz of fireball cinnamon whisky, cloves, honey, and an orange slice with some hot tea will help with a cold and get you nice and ready for bed!
Have you tried Jack Daniel's Single Barrel or George Dickel Barrel Select? If you find bourbon too aggressive, a good Tennessee whiskey might work for you. That extra step of filtering the new make through sugar maple charcoal has a significant impact on how the spirit matures. Of course, being from Tennessee, I might be biased.
@kroman
As a hot toddy or mixed with a cocktail is totally fine by me. I just can't stand it when people drink it neat straight from the glass. Call me picky or high strung but I seriously can't stomach a bottle of Tennessee honey or Jim Beam's Maple Bourbon.
My understanding is that ice is more and more needed as ABV gets higher and higher. For drinks over 50%, it may not be comfortable to drink neat. Under 50%, ice should not be needed, but the truth is, it's about your own preference! Drink it how you most enjoy it, yeah?
@Noodles
Nope.
It's actually the alcohol which is driving the aromas and flavors; higher ABV = more flavor. By the way, in this context, I'm talking about ABV as is relates to "good", aged whisky, specifically single malt scotch. Adding ice only stiffles the aromas and flavors.
This 3 minute video from Charlie MacLean sums it up quite well:
@Noodles
at high strength, it would be preferable to add room temperature water, rather than ice as you will inevitably add too much ice, and the low temperature prevents the organic compound from evaporating which is what gives you the aroma.
@kroman I dare say it was Horst himself who suggested reducing a whisky down to 50% abv. I'd source the vid if I remembered which one it was... but I know he says NO ICE very emphatically in the "Whisky Tasting Episode 1" video.
In any case, thanks for sharing that video!
don't confuse reducing abv with reducing TEMPERATURE. reducing alcohol strength will release the organic compounds, but reducing temperature will in fact increase (all else being the same) the ability of a liquid to dissolve other compound.
Also you can control how much water to add, but you can't control how much ice is going to melt into the dram.
@kroman @hwchoy Points taken and understood about the difference between using Ice and Water!
Here, Horst talks about water dilution:
"You always have to dilute high ABV whiskies to get the full potential out of your whisky. A few years ago, I diluted every whisky above 50% ABV. ...[Today,] above 52/53%. ...And those whiskies below this magical limit, I never dilute."