Anyone know much about whiskey?

[Capetan Mihali]

Yamazaki is, I believe, the premier Japanese single malt but according to wikipedia there are others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_whisky

Greeks are also totally crazy about Scotch, but I think they've had a harder time with domestic manufacture due to European laws. 

I also remember reading a Graham Greene novel loaded with references to Argentine Scotch (mainly how shitty it is and how much the ex-pats want the real thing... and the American ambassador pointedly drinks Coca-Cola during a diplomatic meeting that, at least in Graham Greene's world, would have properly been a booze-drenched affair...)

[Capetan Mihali]

Given his tastes maybe a bottle of Midori.

The only time I've heard anyone order Midori (with pineapple juice) was by a middle-aged black woman in a bar next door to Philadelphia last real porno theater, going on a surprisingly interesting rant directed at the Irish bartender about how her (great?)grandfather was an Irish immigrant who was the first big textile industrialist in Philly to have an integrated workforce, and ended up marrying his black secretary, etc.   

Then she settled for an off-brand version since it was half the price of the Midori.   

[Admiral Yi]

The only time I've heard of a grown man drinking SoCo was about a day ago here.

[Capetan Mihali]

The only time I've heard of a grown man drinking SoCo was about a day ago here.

Stephen King wrote a book under the "Bachman" pseudonym that, IIRC, involved a man drinking a lot of SoCo and 7-Up, then blowing up his house after they try to take it from him to build a highway.  I guess there is that legendary Janis Joplin photo too.

I haven't even seen a lot of hard-partying young women drinking SoCo.  Flavored vodka seems to have taken the field.

[Scipio]

Whatever happened to Suntory?

In any case, there are almost no liquors as good as the best single malts.  Some very few cognacs are near them, but cognac is a scam wrapped in a marketing packaged wrapped in a rapper.  Top Irish whiskeys can match top bourbons, but no rye whiskey can match top bourbons.  Some few vodkas are transcendent, but frankly, they are not worth the delta over the midrange.  Vodka is as big a scam as cognac.  The best rums are better than the best ryes, and may equal good bourbon.  If vodka is the crescent wrench of the liquor world, and rum the phillips screwdriver, tequila is the hex wrench.

[MadImmortalMan]

It's getting so easy to make really good vodka with modern tech that the "bad" vodka has really caught up to the good stuff. The difference is so slim now. Depends more on whether you like potato or grain than anything. Still no excuse to package it in plastic though.

[Josquius]

Whatever happened to Suntory?

Horrific cheap stuff.

It's getting so easy to make really good vodka with modern tech that the "bad" vodka has really caught up to the good stuff. The difference is so slim now. Depends more on whether you like potato or grain than anything. Still no excuse to package it in plastic though.

I kind of disagree.
That the medium stuff is catching up with the good stuff- yeah, probally.
But the bad stuff, the supermarket own brand stuff and Glenns and the like, 5 pounds a bottle, remains awful.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I have some great Scotch downstairs. But I'm drinking rum because I don't want to associate Scotch with a cruddy mood.

[Caliga]

I don't drink when I'm in a bad mood.  Bad, bad idea.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I don't drink when I'm in a bad mood.  Bad, bad idea.

Drinking fixes my mood.

[garbon]

I don't drink when I'm in a bad mood.  Bad, bad idea.

I find drinking just amplifies my mood - so drinking when upset makes me all the more.

I like Macallan.

[Sheilbh]

I third the Japanese whisky idea. 

Also I love and broadly agree with OvB on booze.

[jimmy olsen]

Gin is disgusting.

I agree completely.

[The Brain]

There is a Swedish whisky:

http://www.mackmyra.com/

[Barrister]

Whatever happened to Suntory?

In any case, there are almost no liquors as good as the best single malts.  Some very few cognacs are near them, but cognac is a scam wrapped in a marketing packaged wrapped in a rapper.  Top Irish whiskeys can match top bourbons, but no rye whiskey can match top bourbons.  Some few vodkas are transcendent, but frankly, they are not worth the delta over the midrange.  Vodka is as big a scam as cognac.  The best rums are better than the best ryes, and may equal good bourbon.  If vodka is the crescent wrench of the liquor world, and rum the phillips screwdriver, tequila is the hex wrench.

I don't understand all the hatred I have seen towards rye whiskey.  I guess languish just hates Canadian whiskey.