Among all the food and drink holidays celebrated in the Function section, a traditionally celebrated world whiskey day, on the third Saturday of May, it is among those who make the most sense. Because whiskey, which began thousands of years ago, has since become a drink of the world.
But where it came from it has been a topic of discussion for quite some time.
“Most of us think we are the inventors of whiskey and the Scots have come after us,” says Michael Tierney, assistant general manager at Raglan Road in Disney Springs.
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A simple Google search doesn’t allow you to go back to the first, and sometimes accidental mashtan, but it offers some satisfaction. The first written record of whiskey appeared in Ireland in 1405.
“I’ll go there!” Tierney notes the fact that even Scotland doesn’t dispute. “The oldest licensed distillery in the world is Bush Mills, which is also one of the most well-known brands. I think it was in 1608 that the distillery was licensed and has since produced whiskey.”
And from Ireland and Scotland, whisky knowledge moved across Europe and eventually to the Americas through European settlers. However, recently, whiskey has come from Australia, Taiwan, India and Japan. Everything falls first under the same basic umbrella definition, says Tim Bradstreet.
“Whiskey is distilled from grain and aged in barrels.”
Brad Street (650 S. Capen Ave.; Drinkforwardslash.com, a whiskey maker and co-owner of the Forward/Slash Distillery & Blending House, knows him. He and his partner Michael Buffer have, in part, established a place to preach to converts and baptized the Whiskey Gospel. And there’s a lot to learn for those who are interested.
“Under that definition there are countless different subcategories depending on which grain is used, how it is distilled and what barrels it enters.”
Each has many rules.
For example, bourbon, ratified in May 1964 as a “unique product of the United States,” is made from corn and placed in brand new oak barrels.
“These are two major factors that distinguish bourbon from Irish and Canadian whiskey. It’s completely unique to what we’re doing here, and its brand new barrels are a big factor.
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In fact, some people use multiple things that accentuate the flavor that continues to mature, including Tierney’s personal favorites.
“Where I am, whether in Ireland or America, I have some lovely whiskey after dinner, so it’s going to be a 16-year bush mill,” he says. “It’s a single malt aged in three different barrels. It started with sherry, moved to bourbon and finished for about a year at the Port Wine Cask.”
He says multiple flavors, beautiful colors and spice hints are the result.
“I’m not going to break the bank, but it’s not the whiskey you’re heading down,” says Tierney (Quick searches cost between $140 and $150 per bottle online). “It’s great for cocktails. It has ice, it’s perfect for drinking properly and watching the world pass.”
This is fine for anyone who has experienced him from places like the Four Seasons in Dublin. There, even in the early days, whiskey bars boasted more than 90 Irish whiskeys before the country’s recent explosion of small producers. Raglan has 80-90, which contains unique products up to the collection of Ireland’s most famous homes.
“If we count the others, Scotch, Bourbon, Canada, Japanese, Americans, we think we have around 150 people,” Tierney says.
You won’t find that much in the forward/slash, but you can find something special from the small producers that include Brad Street and buffers. In fact, they are newly minted medalists.
Patience (a virtue of obligatory virtue if you want to make good whiskey yourself), a muddy malt whiskey blend aged in cherry casks has impressed judges enough to bring back gold in the prestigious San Francisco world spirit competition.
Three different American whiskey blends, Colorado, Michigan and New York, are two of which are peat, and in Scotland it is a much more common practice than the state.
“We take the peat and roast the barley to stop the germination process,” explains Brad Street. “And the by-product is smoke from barley peat.”
Smoke contamination is not desirable in wine. “But in the production of malt whisky, it’s absolutely delicious.”
The judges agreed. And if so, you might want to go grab a bottle ($125) before they’re all gone.
Is it too hurry?
The buffer that doesn’t go beyond making cocktails with $1,000 George T. Stag Bourbon is not a snob.
“One of my absolute go-to things is one of the things I have in my bar looking for at the bar: Elijah Craig from Heaven Hill,” he says. “I drink it straight, I put it in a cocktail, and I really enjoy it. And it’s probably a bottle of bourbon that’s $40 to $50.”
Of course, if you’re new to whiskey, you might stop by the public forward/slash tasting room from Wednesday to Sunday. That said, there’s no pressure. You can also enjoy espresso martini and gin and tonic.
“When you’re ready, we’ll be here for you.”
The same can be said. Tokaya, a high-class Izakaya located in the Mills 50 district of Michelin-selected by Tori Tori, Orlando, is one of the most popular cocktails with its basic whiskey soda lemon twist combo, Toki Highball.
If it’s not an official Japanese cocktail, we can testify that it is undoubtedly informal. On my 2024 visit, I drank them in a huge plastic mug at the most casual neighbourhood pub, and at the foot of Mount Tenozan, southwest of Kyoto, just as classy as coming to the revered Yamazaki Distillery. It was founded in 1923, Japan’s oldest.
We also made the dangerous mistake of buying just one Yamazaki bottle that reached $50 in US dollars. I could have got two. It’s well over $100 at home.
“It hurts,” says Sean “Sonny” Nuguen, owner of Tori Tori.
According to the people of Yamazaki, there is art of making highballs, but Nuguen’s team is skilled, but with secret weapons, there is no need to stress. It starts with special filtered water, cools perfectly, then super carbonized before being delved into perfect temple whiskey. Glass-shaped artisan ice spear completes a $13 cocktail for a perfect review.
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“I don’t think we can carbonate sparkling water more than we do when it comes out of that machine,” he says, saying that a good highball is carbonated. “The best thing you can get is the Topo Chico I love and have at home, but this machine takes a little more of it than that.”
Although cash may not be tied down in Yamazaki 12 (not even in Japan or me), you can enjoy it this weekend at Raglan Road. $40 is a 3/4 oz pour, along with two more rare merchandise, Irish Middleton, a rare blend, and 18 Scottish McCarlan.
“We call it the ‘Ring of Firewater,'” says Tierney.
It’s fun, he says.
There is no way for Scotland to argue that.
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