The ultimate delicacy for children is sugar. Almost all children love sweet things, marshmallows, caramel, candy, jam ... But one day, we grow up and there, the gates of paradise open on unknown pleasures, the taste evolves and flourishes, and we discover WHISKY.
The infinite palette of aromas of whisky makes you dizzy (unless it is the alcohol content). Each component, each step of the whisky elaboration will refine the product and lead to an infamous gut or to a nectar "to be damned".
Basically, whisky is a grain germinated, a drying of the malt obtained, a brewing with pure water to obtain a beer and a fermentation by the addition of yeast, one to three distillations, of which only the heart will be the future whisky (the head and the tail of distillation go back to make a turn of still!) and finally an ageing during... the time that it is necessary, in barrels of gasolines and of variable ages.
And at each stage, for each ingredient, the art of the brewer, of the stillman who conducts the distillation, of the cellar master who watches over the aging, create the character and the personality of the whisky. They give birth to and sublimate the aromas and flavors of cereals, fruits, flowers and spices, which are in the domain of food.
But where whisky is so particular and so atypical, it is that the amateur's palate develops an attraction for more surprising imprints, peaty, smoky, iodized, notes of leather, earth, rock, perfumes and tastes far from the jam of childhood.
No one will make me eat leather or flint, even if it is well cooked, so what is it that provokes this almost orgasmic pleasure when tasting a Smokehead, an Ardbeg, a Talisker, a Laphroaig, a Yoichi, an Askaig (my favorite of the moment), a Lagavulin, and so many others?
You have two hours.
--- in moderation, always, otherwise it can hurt ---
