"Water of Life"

Appropriately, in Edinburgh, they have a tourist spot called The Scottish Whisky Experience (although locals have told me that they visit as well!) It was a nice little tour and ride - think alcohol themed slow Disney attraction. 

If you know anything about Whisky or even if you don't (I hadn't), chances are you still probably know what a big deal Whisky is to the UK, and Scotland specifically. Did you ever wonder why some Whisky was actually "SCOTCH"?! Here's a little history lesson (see, I am learning things here!)

1. The letter E should never be associated with the spelling of WHISKY. Stupid Americans!
2. The Gaelic term "usquebaugh", meaning "Water of Life," phonetically became "usky"and then "whisky" in English. 
3. More specifically, in Scotland, it is often called Scotch Whisky or Scotch (and just Whisky as well, opposed to whiskey).
4. Scotland has internationally protected the term "Scotch". For a whisky to be labelled Scotch it has to be produced in Scotland. If it is to be called Scotch, it cannot be produced in England, Wales, Ireland, America, etc. 

After learning about the distillation process, how different "flavors" are made, the differences between Scotland's distilleries, etc (sorry for the lack of detail Conor, but you must know that I don't really care that much haha) We went into the collection room for a tasting. We first learned the basics of "nosing" and "tasting" (snooze) and the benefits/drawbacks of adding water or ice. I tasted a mixed blend of separately distilled whiskies from all over Scotland. 

In my opinion the best part of the tour was that it the organization houses the largest collection of whisky in the WORLD. The collection features 3,384 bottles, and was built up over 35 years by Brazilian whisky enthusiast, Claive Vidiz, who has spent millions of dollars and traveled the world searching for whiskies! It's funny, someone on the tour asked what Claive's favorite kind of whisky was, and it ended up being some super cheap one that everyone drinks (I think it was called something with "Red" in the title, that could be way off though)

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