Jameson
Jameson has always been my favorite drink. I knew it would only be a matter of time before I ended up at the Old Jameson Distillery.
It’s called that because they no longer distill the whiskey in Dublin. It’s now made in Cork, but they’ve kept the old distillery open for tourists to spend all their money on engraved whiskey bottles and Irish coffee (which I still believe was invented in San Francisco).
As long as you realize the tour is going to be filled with bad jokes, wax dummies of Irish workers, and an old cat that was once believed to bring luck (but has since been stuffed by a taxodermist) then you’ll have a good time.
Aside from reconfirming my love for Jameson-despite their tacky commercial endeavors-I learned the basic difference between Irish whiskey, scotch and American whisky (Americans drop the “e” in whiskey):
Irish whiskey is distilled three times in old port or sherry casks (hence its color)
Scotch is distilled twice (in who knows what)
American whisky is distilled only once in new barrels (the origins of its color?)
There’s your lesson for the day. I’ll be back later to tell you about Trinity College and the Book of Kells. And, what, you may be wondering is the connection between whiskey and old Christian manuscripts? Whiskey was invented by Irish monks to be used as perfume, but they soon discovered a much better use for it. Whether they were drinking it when they wrote the Book of Kells no one knows for sure. But I have my own beliefs.