Originally Posted by
danthepoetman
LOL! You don't know?
OK, my good Youngblood: "whisky"! not "whiskey". Whiskey is an alcohol made in a hurry, with any kind of cereal, sometimes even syrupy, heavy, gluey corn. They grind the cereal into flour, and put it with water into a continuous still, which makes a tasteless, headache making alcohol. Only the wood it is put in will give it any character. Sometimes, they even allow other alcohols to get into the mix, in order to confer taste to that stuff... Most "whiskey" you find in liquor stores are usually made of about 15 to 40% of good, well made alcohol. The rest is filled with that junk. For the most part, that's what is called whiskey.
Now, whisky is something else. And if you're talking about -and I'm tenderly evoking it here- Single Malt Whisky, you are talking about an alcohol made of barley that's been germinated to malt, then amourously bathed with yeast to make it into a bear, then finaly distilled with different types of stills (which gives each some unique characteristics to it), and nicely aged for almost always more than 8 years, and usually at least 10. What you get in the bottle you buy, is that alcohol and that alcohol only. No other alcohol of lesser quality. This process of making it creates an absolutely unique drink. It has regional characteristics and differences of tastes and perfumes, just exactly like wines in France or Italy, it is every bit as complex and delicate in flavours. This is why some of the whisky loving people tend to cringe, when they hear or read the word "whiskey"... :)