Mix Whisky with Water

Taking a moment's reflection, Kay Pfeiffer mused: | | at what time you mix whisky and water?

Twelfth of never. ;-)

I have sometimes mixed the 10 yo Talisker with a few drops of water... not more than 2-3 drops. I think the tallisker is a very strong whisky that explodes in the mouth, with pepper like taste and the water makes it much better.

The tallisker is btw exceptionel with dark chocolate :)) MMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Mars

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I always add upto the same volume of filtered (or spring) water. The amount depends on the malt but can be as low as a quarter of the volume of malt.

always........... drinking straight booze will give you cancer of the tongue or throat.

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 20:56:04 -0400, the alleged Jimmy Smith, may have top-posted the following, to alt.drinks.scotch-whisky:

Cite?

Regards, Rob

-- "Or better yet, use the Jack Daniels `shot and a chaser' glass. An honest admission of the true nature of Tennessee whiskey."

-- Bushido in alt.drinks.scotch-whisky

Jimmy,

So now I suppose you want to know which kind of cancer gives the better high.

what utter nonsense

................ if you believe it is nonsense then you should just keep belting down the doubles buddy. suck em' up, sip em' slow and enjoy every last drop. you know, a lot of people still believe smoking doesn't not cause cancer. grow up

eso es ridiculo estupido

he's right that intake of alcohol generally is a risk factor, almost certainly wrong to imply diluting whisky cuts the risk much at all.

I drink whisky despite knowing this. I dilute only for taste.

I also eat butter, another risk factor, and I'm not planning on stopping:

cf

No cabrón, eso es una broma, no como tus tonterias, faccia di culo.

Johanna

I don't dilute--also for taste.

Michael, being from a math and science background, do you mind if I quote a bit more of that Japanese study that you are citing? Some on the group might like to know that the increased risk the study observed is for those patients who *already* had head and neck cancer... Johanna

---Original Text--- Alcohol consumption as a major risk factor in the development of early esophageal cancer in patients with head and neck cancer. Tanabe H, Yokota K, Shibata N, Satoh T, Watari J, Kohgo Y. Third Department of Internal Medicine, Asahikawa Medical College. OBJECTIVE: To clarify the incidence of concomitant esophageal cancers in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), and to investigate which risk factors are responsible for this association. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 1994 to 2000, 134 patients with HNC underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy using the 0.8% Lugol stain method to detect esophageal cancer. A case-control study was designed to compare HNC patients with and without esophageal cancer.

---End of Text---  

he's right that intake of alcohol generally is a risk factor, almost certainly wrong to imply diluting whisky cuts the risk much at all. I drink whisky despite knowing this.  I dilute only for taste. I also eat butter, another risk factor, and I'm not planning on stopping: cf

diluting it doesn't reduce the amount of carcinogens.

at the risk of starting a flame up, it's immature replies such as yours that are indicative of someone who needs to grow up. buddy.

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Hello Kay,

Welcome to the conversation.

I almost never add water to malt whiskies bottled at 40%,

With cask strength or high proof whiskies I usually add a few drops of water, but I will taste the whisky first without adding anything.

Some whiskies are harsh even at 40% ABV, while some high proof whiskies are very good with no water added at all.

I will add a little at a time. I don't want to add too much. I want to drink the whisky at the highest ABV that doesn't burn my taste.

When I add water I prefer spring water or bottled water. But I have used tap water when I am in an area where the tap water tastes good.

Bart

Dark chocolate seems to go very well with whisky. It is a nice match for a very sherried whisky; what is surprising is that it also goes very well with the really peated whiskies like Talisker and the Islays.

But it seems that it must be dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is a much harder thing to match with whisky.

Scharffen Berger!!!

Bart

Good post. I have to respect someone who can cite their sources.

But I think most people (and I include myself even though I know better) have a hard time remembering the difference between a statistical correlation and a causal (cause-and-effect) relationship. And while alcohol consumption may be a statistical risk factor for one malady, it may be at the same time a statistically advantageous one for another, like heart disease.

I think wisdom lies with the Greeks on this one: not avoidance, but "in all things, moderation". It's usually attributed to Aristotle but seems to be the general bent of Greek social thinking.

I chased down the link on alcohol consumption, and Johanna was right, I think, that it matters that the people studied already had cancers in adjacent tissues. But a known propensity (family history?) toward cancer would make a reasonable stand-in. And certainly all propensities are not known.

If there are carcinogens in whisky - and where aren't there? - then diluting would not decrease the amount of carcinogens ingested. But if it's a matter of irritation then it would concievably ameliorate that. Before the Islamic world yeilded the secret of distillation, anything stronger than strong wine was almost unknown. (Some ancients are reported to have frozen wine and skimmed off the liquid that didn't freeze - it was reported that this skimmed "wine" was very powerful and only a small amount was as effective as several cups of common wine. Those nutty barbarians!) So high proof spirits could be said to be "unnatural"; while at the same time they are a raw agricultural product - a good unfiltered "straight from the cask" whisky will often have all sorts of little splinters and debris floating about.

Perhaps abstinence would add some months, even years, to my life. The problem is that it adds them to the end of my life: who needs another few months of wasting away on a respirator? And it would definitely subtract something pleasant from my middle age. Now if it would give me a few more months of being 22,...

Bart

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As much as wine has played the infidel And robbed me of my robe of honor, well... I often wonder what the vintner buys One half so precious as the goods he sells?

------- Edward Fitzgerald's Adaptation of the Rubayat of Omar Khayyam

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Adding water to whisky seems a matter of personal preference. And so, personally, I always add a few drops of water to my whisky as I don't like the burning on the tongue and palate when alcohol concentration is too high. But then again, different people will probably have different tolerance levels for that. Naturally, with cask strength whiskies, the higher ABV, the more water is added, although I'm far from diluting my whisky to 20% ABV as is sometimes recommended.

You will read in some books on whisky that the addition of water "opens up" the whisky flavours, and improves the nose of a whisky. My experience tells me that it is not always true. On several occasions addition of even very little water simply killed the nose, the whisky went flat although the nose was quite promising before dilution. Glenfiddich 21yo Havana Reserve, tasted recently, was a notable example. Had to rescue the whisky by adding more of it to the glass ;-) Whereas the nose of Bruichladdich 15yo OB 46%ABV, also tasted recently, improved considerably with a few drops of water. Sometimes water brings out and intensifies rather unpleasant notes, like in Glenfiddich 12yo Caoran Reserve, where addition of a few drops made the whisky smell like an old, damp cellar full of rotting potatoes.

The thing to remember is that you have to leave the whisky for a while after you add the water. It is sometimes suggested that you should leave it for as many minutes as there were years that the whisky spent in cask. In other words, the older the whisky, the longer it is supposed to take for the whisky to mix properly with water. Though I can't say I waited 50 minutes when tasting Glen Grant 1948 50yo from Gordon & MacPhail last week (sorry, couldn't resist boasting!).

Also, with unchilfiltered whiskies (vast majority of cask strength whiskies and those bottled at 46% ABV or higher - to give you a rough idea which are unchillfiltered, though it is usually stated on the label) addition of water may cause the whisky to become a bit hazy. It is not a fault of the whisky, in fact I would say it's a virtue, but some people object to it looking "untasty".

All in all, it is up to you to decide how you like your whisky.

Cheers, Rajmund

Taking a moment's reflection, Johanna mused: | | Michael, being from a math and science background, do you mind if I quote | a bit more of that Japanese study that you are citing? Some on the group | might like to know that the increased risk the study observed is for | those patients who *already* had head and neck cancer... Johanna

Sounds a bit like the original study that showed that salt and eggs were bad for the heart ... only to realise this correlation was found because all of the tests subjects were diagnosed with heart disease prior to the study.