Friday Happy Hour: The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Single Malt Scotch
Those who frequent our site may find this hard to believe, but sometimes, just sometimes, we drink spirits other than rum! I know, I know, we’ve written about the joys of rum over a hundred times in the past two years, but man cannot live on rum alone. (Believe me, we’ve tried.) So, I’d like to take a moment to enjoy my second favorite spirit: scotch.
I know what you’re thinking.
“Scotch!? What self-respecting Caribbean blog covers scotch?”
Well, we are called Uncommon Caribbean after all, and besides The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Single Malt Scotch Whiskey is not your ordinary scotch.
This golden-hued intoxicant begins life like most scotches in the cold, far northern reaches of Scotland. There, in a little village set on the banks of the River Spey the Balvenie Distillery has crafted some of the most amazing expressions of single malt scotches the world has ever seen since 1893. And over the years, little has changed. They still grow all their own barley, still malt in the traditional fashion, and still employ coppersmiths to maintain their stills. (OK, probably more has changed at Balvenie than at this distillery in Grenada, but you get the idea.)
Anyway, not content to sit on their malted laurels, the maltmasters of Balvenie have a long history of experimenting with different cask types (port, sherry, etc.) and ages of spirit for new, imaginative tweaks to their range. And that’s where our old friend rum comes in. In a manner much more nuanced than the moment someone got chocolate in someone else’s peanut butter, David Stewart, Balvenie maltmaster for over 45 years, dreamt of laying a soft, sexy and decidedly West Indian patina of rum-soaked oak around their top-shelf scotch.
The result: one of the most silky smooth and round scotch whiskeys to ever pass my lips. You’ll be sure to taste familiar Caribbean notes of vanilla, molasses and even sugarcane masterfully mingling with the oaky tastes you’d expect from a quality single malt. Far from an abomination, this is an easy-drinking masterpiece-in-a-bottle worth spending some quality time sipping with friends… Or keeping all to yourself!
So, for a taste of something different with a decidedly Caribbean twist, I highly recommend giving The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Single Malt Scotch Whiskey a try.
Slaandjivaa!
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