For several years, Irish whiskey has been the fastest growing category of brown spirits in the country and worldwide. There is an old joke that goes:
Q: Do you know why God invented whiskey?
A: To keep the Irish from taking over the world.
But if we get everybody else to drink it too.... Perhaps it is by Irish whiskey that we WILL take over the world!!!
Here's the skinny on Irish vs Scotch.
First of all, there's the matter of peating, which means smoking germinating barley over a peat fire. Peat is dried, grassy mud. It rains so much in Ireland and Scotland that soil of the grassy peat bogs is so rich in organic matter that it will burn if dried out properly. It's an inefficient fuel and creates a lot of distinctive smelling smoke.
Much of Scottish whisky is peated, which results in varying degrees of smoky "peatyness". The Irish generally avoid this step, resulting in a very clean spirit.
The Scottish distillers say that Irish whisky is "unfinished" because of this. The Irish of course refer to Scottish whiskey as "ruined" because of it.
The Scots also leave out the "e" in their Whisky while the Irish can afford the extra vowel.
There are many other differences but suffice it to say that the clean character of Irish whiskey makes it a friendly cocktail ingredient, while Scotch generally doesn't play as well with others.
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