When Coco first invited me to be a guest blogger on cocoandlowe.com and said it would involve attending a Scotch tasting, my initial reaction was to say “No thanks, I don’t drink scotch”. BUT when she added “It will be at ONE restaurant in Yorkville, free food and taxi chits…?” Well, how could I resist? Come on…free booze, food and cab fare? Have you ever had the ‘lobster spoons’ appetizer at ONE? I would attend any event to have even a small chance that they would be giving out lobster spoons. They are succulent bite size morsels of lobster meat swimming in melted butter, cleverly served in spoons. Mmmmmmmm. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about lobster spoons even though I love them. I’m here to tell you about my experience at the MACALLAN scotch tasting event.
I was asked to invite 2 friends to join me. I wanted to choose friends who didn’t necessarily drink scotch regularly so that we’d all be on the same level. I chose my 2 girls Sonia and Tamara.
Sonia and Tamara
We were greeted with a smile and a glass of 10 year old Macallan Scotch. Honestly, the smell of scotch reminds me of my dad. I always thought of scotch as an older man’s drink. But whatever…I drank it anyway. (on the rocks…)
We took our seats at one of the tables and there were place settings for each person with 4 glasses of scotch lined up. Yikes! Thank god there was bread and chocolate (?) on the table. I found out later that each glass had a different year scotch in it. 12, 15, 18, 21. We were told that dark chocolate and scotch are a delicious combo. So I tried it and LOVED it. You let the chocolate melt in your mouth a little, then take a swig of the scotch. It was so yummy.
A really funny man got up to the front of the room and did a power point presentation on the each of the different aged scotches and educated us on how and where each is made and the techniques that Macallan uses to make its Scotch superior to other brands. It’s pretty cool to learn about how Barley and Water turn into liquid that makes people drunk. If you want to learn more, go to www.celebratethemacallan.ca Trust me! I learned some cool things at this tasting that I can use to make conversation with men drinking scotch next time I go to a bar. Like “hey did you know that Macallan uses oak casks, handcrafted and sherry seasoned in Jerez, Spain. This delivers a scotch wonderfully rich in colour with dried fruits, spice and chocolate orange.” Hahaha… so impressive!
My friends and I had a blast! Tamara ended up winning the draw for the big bottle of 12 year Macallan. Lucky! We were sent home with a beautiful gift box. (My dad’s gonna love it)
All in all, we left with a new found appreciation for scotch. It’s no longer an “older man’s drink” to me. We actually made plans to get together and drink the bottle Tamara won. I’ll bring the chocolate.
Woohooo! Thanks for asking me to do this Coco!
Xoxo
Mimi
