Whisky witches and the Cocktail Mafia
Hello everyone,
February is always one of my favourite months - but I may be biased considering my birthday takes place during the shortest month of the year! Celebrations this year consisted of champagne and oysters, but for once actually not much whisky. However, the rest of the month certainly had plenty of fun whisky happenings!
First up was a slightly different whisky tasting than I'm used to with the theme of Whisky & Witches. It took place at the Mother Superior bar in Edinburgh and it was the bar owner, Jane, who was hosting the evening alongside musician Christine Kammerer. During the evening they presented various whiskies representing different regions and each also had a specific tale and folk songs performed by Christine. It was such an interesting evening and we had some good whiskies as well. First up was Fragrant Drops - a new Edinburgh based independent bottler - and their 14 year old Teaninich which had been matured in an ex Bordeaux red wine cask. It was followed by NcNean which always has such an interesting grain flavour coming through in the spirit. Third up was High Grove 12 year old Laphroaig - whisky chosen by Highgrove Garden as Laphoraig has a royal warrant and Highgrove is the private residence of King Charles and Camilla. I had no idea this bottle even existed, so was great to learn something new. To finish the night we turned to the caramel goodness of Highland Park Cask Strength and as a bonus Christine had also brought Danish whisky from Stauning, since she is from Denmark herself. Stauning has such good whisky, I'm already a big fan and the rye we tried during the evening was full of flavour in a nicely balanced way.
Whisky & Witches will also be performing throughout the year and the Fringe Festival so if you're heading to Edinburgh - do check them out!
Throughout February I've also managed to be quite productive in planning my coming months. Not only do we have a wedding date (very excited!), but I also have upcoming trips to Islay with Highland Explorer Tours, my first time experiencing Islay during the festival, so will definitely write more about this in May. I will also be visiting Glenglassaugh Distillery and Glasgow Distillery for the first time in the coming months. I love having things to look forwards to in my calendar - and this year is looking great so far!
To finish the month I visited The Cocktail Mafia as they were launching a new food menu in collaboration with Delightfully Delicious. I'd highly recommend the Korean chicken, but besides from tasty food they also have loads of fun cocktails. They do both classics like the New York sour inspired "Mainline Wine" with Wemyss Malts Spice King and red wine and something different like the "Dear Rosemary" with Naked Malt, rosemary and blackcurrant. They're not afraid to go a bit crazy and I'd also highly recommend "Moves like Jäger", a tiki cocktails made with Jägermeister if you fancy straying from whisky for once!
A short and sweet month - just like February usually is. But I am really looking forward to what the coming months have in store and in March I will also be hosting a whisky tasting in the Alps so can't wait to be back in the mountains!