They even spread it across the empire.

https://youtu.be/vkYbSwb0s4E

Also, Japanese whisky is amazing.

Definitely, but local bagpipes were mostly replaced with the modern Great Highland bagpipe[1], just like local bowed string instruments[2] were mostly replaced with the modern violin family.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Highland_bagpipe

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebab

Bagpipes are Scottish (or I guess Irish).

And somehow it all ends up in Jordan. You got to love the cross-pollination of cultures.

I can’t even find a 12 locally. Have to settle for bottles of Harmony.

You live in Japan. In the respect of your privacy, I will not share your exact location here

Nope, but have traveled there multiple times.

> In the respect of your privacy, I will not share your exact location here

1) if you knew my exact location, you wouldn’t have made the claim I live in Japan.

2) the tone definitely feels creepy, even if you were trying to cover yourself by implying you were doing the honorable thing.

Impossible to get the "exact" tone via text.

Somewhat true, but re-read your statement again. When you don’t know me (or really anything about me), why would you imply you know my exact location and the only reason you didn’t share it was because of respecting my privacy? Your first sentence was fine (although factually incorrect), but I feel many who read your second sentence would find it to have a bit of a creepy tone (possibly why it was downvoted, but who knows what actually goes through someone’s mind who downvotes w/o commenting).

My standard purchase now is Kabuto (old g+g blend in a plastic samurai themed bottle) since they are $50 at JAL duty free and worth $300-400 on the second-hand market, since they are a JAL Duty Free exclusive. (I’m in the JAL F lounge at NRT right now, actually)

I didn't even know Japan made whisky (whiskey?) until about a month ago when trying a Nikka Yoichi brought to us by a Japanese colleague. We were very impressed. This was easily as tasty as many of the better Scotch single malts. In fact I bet if people wouldn't see the bottle and would be asked what it was the majority would say 'good Scotch' :)

Hakushu is also great, but I haven't tried their 18/25 aged whiskeys.

Yamazaki 18 won a 'Gold'[1] award five years back through the International Spirits Challenge and has been difficult to find reasonable prices since.

1 - https://www.suntory.com/about/award/

Anyways, not sure what the point of this study was other than a reason for scientists to have many bottles of whiskey open in the lab.

Having lot's of open bottles of whiskey (and other alcohols) in the lab is venerable part of the science method where I live. Especially in the theoretical math and physics faculties.

See pages 21-24: https://www.ttb.gov/images/pdfs/whisky-webinar.pdf

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/07/these-pi...

[Using colored lights and editing a photographer turned whisky sediments into galactic looking works of art.]

  A Scotsman who spells
  Whisky with an ‘e’,
  should be hand cuffed 
  and thrown head first in the Dee.

  In the USA and Ireland, 
  it’s spelt with an ‘e’
  but in Scotland
  it’s real ‘Whisky’. 
  So if you see Whisky 
  and it has an ‘e’,
  only take it,
  if you get it for free! 
  For the name is not the same 
  and it never will be,
  a dram is only a real dram,
  from a bottle of ‘Scotch   Whisky’.
  ~ Stanley Bruce.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_description

1- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Dee,_Aberdeenshire

So you have "At the mouth of the river"-Deen. (Though of course the real rivers are the Dee and the Don, so it isn't as simple as it should be!)

Last year I had a bottle of whisky from India which I’m pretty sure also dropped the e. That too was a lovely drink and could easily have been mistaken for scotch.

https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/features/19680/not-all-jap...

I hate to link to Bloomberg but this article is pretty good:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-19/that-expe...

While there are patterns with which countries use whisky vs. whiskey, there's no legal requirement.

However it is not silliness to detail regional variations in spelling, particularly when, as in this case, they give clues to lines of heritage.

Wales's primary Whisky distillery [0] calls it whisky.

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penderyn_(whisky)

Highland. Lowland. Island.

Varieties from the same region share characteristics, but they're distinct from each other.

I'm curious how historically the kilns would be fired across Scotland, if peat was more prevalent?

http://www.bairds-malt.co.uk/Bairds-Malt/Process/process mentions about using hot air.

https://www.laphroaig.com/en/whisky/our-process - Has some nice videos, including them using solely peat to kiln the malt.

As well as the fact that irish whiskey generally has a mashbill containing a portion of unmalted barley. Not sure, but I think it is at _least_ 30% as per the Irish Whiskey Association rules?

Single malt Scotch requires (as per SWA rules) a 100% malted barley mashbill.

Blended Scotch, on the other hand, has no such requirement, and is typically a blend of Single malt Scotch and alcohols from other cereals.

That completely blows my mind. I went to the Woodford Reserve distillery recently but i didn't realize the state made that much.

If you consider how long whiskey ages, it really isn't surprising that there is that many barrels.

The numbers seem staggering, after doing the napkin math I'm curious how accurate they are.

[1] https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2019/scotlands-population...

[2] https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/insights/facts-figures/

You know it is a matter of where you stand, in Ireland whiskey is Irish whiskey as it should be. In the US I’ll ask for whiskey and I have a choice! bourbon or rye. Its only right that in Scotland whisky is Scotch whisky.

While the my Irish hosts showed great hospitality in opening the bar they were not done. I asked about dinner and the bar keep made it for me.

I’ve been all over the world but my trip to rainy Dublin is so memorable for how well I was treated.

Ahem, the Irish had whiskey a thousand years before Americans.

... and I know this priceless piece of trivia because the Clancy brothers mention it in the intro to Finnegans Wake.

Edit: Actually the link to vodka might be bad etymology on my part, my Russian teacher taught me that. Eau de Vie, and tonnes of others fit.

Nobody likes plastic Paddies.

Not to be overly pedantic, but it was actually only around 700 years. Irish whiskey was first produced in the 12th century, and the first Kentucky whiskey is from the late 18th century.