Theres a great little rum shop on the island of aruba right next to the distillary. Every rum under the sun and loadsa free tasting. Now got me looking at my pampero aniversario, cacique 500 and wishing I had a bottle of selecto, great memories of bollas criollas, tejo and sinking bottles and bottles of etiqueta negra followed by cacique into the wee small hours.................................
I brought back some 151 rum from Dominican Republic but it was like firewater absolutley lethal, they actually stopped people from bringing it back as duty free, the locals drink it like tea. I took some to my sisters at New Year, very messy!
One of the annual LeMans trips when I was living in south america I brought three bottles of cacique back, half we drank half was used as lighter fuel!!!
When I was a youngster (still at junior school) I had a cold and my Mum did me a honey and lemon in the afternoon and it was ok. The one she did in the evening my Dad put a bit of whisky in and it tasted much better. Never had any since..maybe it's the thought of having it without honey and lemon.
Though Ardbeg is a favourite, I like most of the Islay malts... Southern The southern distilleries - Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Port Ellen (the latter was closed in 1983) - are the most powerful, producing medium-bodied whiskies, saturated with peat-smoke, brine and iodine. Not only do these disilleries use heavily peated malt (50 parts per million at Ardbeg, 40 parts per million at Laphroaig), they use the island's brown water for every stage of production - until they were closed in the early 1980s, Ardbeg had its own floor maltings and used to steep the barley in the same water. Northern The northern Islay distilleries - Bruichladdich (the 'ch' is silent) and Bunnahabhain ('Boona-hah-ven') are, by contrast, much milder. These draw their water direct from the spring, before it has had contact with peat, and use lightly or un-peated barley. The resulting whiskies are lighter flavoured, mossy (rather than peaty), with some seaweed, some nuts, but still the dry finish. Bowmore Distillery, in the middle of the island, stands between the two extremes - peaty but not medicinal, with some toffee, some floral scents, and traces of linseed oil. Coal lla ('Cal-eela'), although close to Bunnahabhain, produces a delicate, greenish malt, with some peat/iodine/salt balanced by floral notes and a peppery finish.
For goodness sake! Is there any topic that no-one on this board has any knowledge? Who is the expert on 11th century Tibetan monk migration?
Like migratory monks, our collective knowledge knows no bounds. What would you like to know? For instance, did you know that asparagus makes your pee smell because it contains the same gas as bad breath, flatulence and skunk secretions? Makes you think twice about dining at The Savoy!
BB, I believe he was named after a full back of an earlier era...his full name being Bardsley Thodol.
