tried a new one when we on vacation - ledaig. bought it to have a decent scotch down at my parents'. (they prefer sickening stuff like electric blue creme de menthe. *shudder*) was pretty good, although idk if id buy again. definitely no lagavulin. a friend really liked it, though, he hadnt really had much in the way of single malt scotches before, especially smoky ones.

tried a hard cider today - smith & forge. was ok. supposedly 6% abv, but basically tasted like apple juice and i didnt get much of a buzz, even from 4 of em. (3 in close proximity, one only a lil later.) was fun, we bought a 12 pack, stuck it in my backpack and headed to the beach. probably wont buy again, tho.

I love BDT, I go to their brewpub once every few months just for l'horlage, which is a 4oz taster of 12 or more beers delivered in a clock pattern on a serving tray starting from lightest taste and going to strongest. The idea is that you start at the beginning and get to taste a large amount of their beers without having to worry about cleansing your palate.

It's quite an experience.

sounds pretty cool...

It really is, BDT is great. Really good food and really good beer. Can't go wrong there.

I really like your idea of doing blind tastings. Think I might start testing my palate as well. My whiskey collection is relatively small right now, only about 10 bottles, but a few buddies of mine have similar collections so maybe we can all do one together.

it really is fun. in fact, i think ill have my wife go pour me one now. even with just 10 bottles you could do it unless theyre all highly variant.

They are, since I've got bourbons, scotches and whiskeys. It's easy to tell the difference between the three and at that point I have a 1 in 3 chance of guessing right without relying on my palate at all.

Between my 2 buddies and I i think we can pull together 40+ bottles so we'll have some fun one night and see what happens.

ah, yeah. still a bit of challenge there, but not as much.

btw, i prefer to use a dark shot glass so that i cant start narrowing it down by color, forcing me to rely only on smell/taste.

my nose must be off tonight, though, i didnt think it smelled peated, but it was. i nailed it by taste, tho. laphroig 10 year cask strength. the peatiness and high abv (feel the burn!) narrowed it down to either that or ardbeg uigedail, but the uigedail is a bit sweeter, whereas this is a bit peatier. bam...

mmm... ardbeg uigedail is one of my favorite scotches. Think I might go and pour a glass right now.

that ones my wifes favorite. if you like it you should give the laphroig a try. she was pleasantly surprised to find it almost as good.

i poured her some caol ila, but she guessed lagavulin on her first try. got it on second guess tho.

lagavulin is my favorite. caol ila is also good, tho. the ardbeg and laphroig i generally find to be a lil too strong for me to enjoy as much and watering em down, well, waters em down...