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Bells or other cooking whisky goes well with Irn Bru. Both your national drinks in the one glass!
A malt? With water or neat depending on the whisky and your taste. I had a drink at the Oban Distillery after fdoing a job there. The manager of the suggested mixing with a small amount of water.the best water to mix it with according to him is from the same source the distillery draws it's water.
Occasionally, some misguided fool buys me a bottle of Grants / Bells / Grouse. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I'll happily neck it with a bit of lemonade.
Any malts get a tiny wee drop of water to open them up. If I'm buying malts in a pub, I usually ask for a half pint of water and dispense the water myself - otherwise you run the risk of your nip getting drowned.
I mostly drink Islay malts, and thoroughly enjoy a Dalwhinnie now and then. Always neat, and usually with a pint of Bass or an espresso.
But when the cupboard is bare I sip Bells, neat, from a shot glass and to be honest, it's pretty good.
how would I drink it? Excessively I reckon!
Bells is a bit minging I reckon but it doesnae matter what it tastes like to me - it's you that'll be drinking it. Try mixing a few different things and see what you like. Ice, water, ginger ale, brandy (for indigestion), coke, lemonade, whatever.
If you're mixing with water then try adding a wee bit and tasting it and add more if it needs it. Don't just stick with a third or half-and half. It usually takes a good few drams to find the right tipping point. Sooner or later you'll start telling lies and calling old girlfriends and stop worrying about the drink.
Above all, dinnae let anyboy tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing with YOUR bottle of whisky. There's as much shite talked about it as there is in the fields.
Enjoy.
PS - top tip. If somebody uses the phrase "single malt" when whisky would do then they're probably a tit.
e.g. "I fancy a nice glass of single malt." = tit ;O)
Edit: ****in swear filter!
Living on Speyside and having friends in the many distilleries I can see or ride to from here I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert. Bells is fine in the same way that JD or Bacardi is fine. It gets you pished but is not enjoyable on its own. You need a mixer which might as well be coke as you have already dropped to the lowest level by having the crap in the first place.
A proper whisky should be taken with 1 lump of ice which you allow to melt before drinking, or if you are in a hurry then the same again in proper water. Tap water from anywhere south of Gretna will ruin it! To get the absolute best out of it you should spend at least 18 years eating deep fried pizzas, battered haggis and tablet to prepare your taste buds for it. The ability to kick off for no rational reason is also a requirement.
how about chivas regal at about 25 degrees ( aye the whisky not the air ....)
from an african bush bar* ... darent risk the ice for fear of dysentry !
* may not even have been chivas regal but the bottle said so given ive never had it before id never know the difference
drink? nah its for dunkin' ma christmas cake in.
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[url= http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/mtbwelcome.htm ][b]2retro4u[/b][/url]
Marin County, Cali
Straight if it's good.
Beer if it's not.
Mum always taught me to drink my whisky neat. Sometimes I prefer to take my tie off.
1) Whisky Mac is brilliant
2) Whisky Ging and ice is good if you don't have any Crabbies
3) If it's Hogmany, chuck shots down your throat and chase with ice-cold lager
Wake up new year's day, hungover and in a strange hotel room with a bad woman.
I gave it a go with some ginger ale and really like it. Not had chance to get any ginger wine yet. Is there much difference?
My old neighbour said to me. The only thing that mixes well with whisky .. is more whisky.
its advise I have always stuck with.
Ginger wine?? Did someone suggest that?
Yep first reply.
Raided the old mans drinks cabinet when I was a kid 13/14ish, drank half a bottle of Teachers. No more whiskey for me.
Contrary to popular belief there is nothing wrong with blended whisky, ok so bells isn't the best but it's ok. Blends are often easier drinking or more complete/rounded than single malts and can be way more pricey than many single malts. Mixers in posh blends or single malts is probably a waste as you miss the subtlety, but with inexpensive blends do what you like. For me I'd drink bells with a splash of water or 50% Ginger wine. Most importantly, drink it how you like it. One thing I've learned on the past 4 years of going to a whisky tasting club is that no two peoples' palettes are the same. i.e. The only thing that matters is whether you like it...
Bells is bad news, hangovers on it made my blood feel itchy. Gave it up long long ago.
There's different Whiskys for different situations but my favorite has got to be Suntory Yamazaki 12 year old. Lovely stuff.
Chuck the Bells in a few cocktails and pick yourself up something special, it's not a great deal more in terms of ££ but it's so much more in terms of taste.
One of the beauties of whiskys and whiskeys is that they are so varied but you won't like them all.
Went to a great whisky shop in Pitlochry that had many hundreds of them.
While I was in the area, I also went to the Blair Athol Distillery (home of Bells). Now I'm not a Bells fan, but when you did the distillery trip in the old days, they tell you about the 37 (I think that's the number) of single malts that go into Bells and you got your wee dram at the end of the trip. Both me and the Mrs chose different single malts, hoping that we could find something good to take home. What was a huge surprise was that they both tasted like Bells. As a result, we necked them and went to the Glenturret Distillery in Creif. Now that is a whisky or rather was, not had any since it was taken over by the Grouse people.
As for how I drink mine, with a drop of water or ice if it's whiskey.
Think I might have to go home and wake up my taste buds!!
Sorry, I forget to mention, if you want a great blended, try Chevas Regal.
coke, irn bru, ginger ale, lemonade, water, neat-whatever you like, it's your bottle.
Forget what all the 'single malt' snobs say. Most of them talk total mince.
bells is not to my taste but there's nowt wrong with good blended whisky. The vast majority of the production from most of the big 'single malt' distilleries is sold to make the more robust blends.
champagne is after all a blend of wines and it's pretty damned expensive....
whisky mack is the way ahead for you.
i'm typing this sat next to our whisky collection.....it's a little early in the day......i shouldn't really 😥
I have a friend who recommends whisky and red wine. Make sure both are cheap for max tramp points.
If anyone is interested, the shop in Pitlochry appears to be still there 12 years after my last visit. It is called Robertsons. I should have asked them to put a barrel down for me it might have been ready now
[url= http://homepages.which.net/~a.robertson/index.htm ]Robertsons Whisky Shop[/url]
Heaven
quote: Best way to drink bells is to pour some better whisky into the glass and throw the bells down the sink n.
absolutely spot on, of all blends Bells IMO is the worst. Despite enjoying lots of different malts I have never liked stuff like Bells, and if you`re statrting out on a whisky trail then Bells is a bad start point. Pass it on, try a blend such as Famous Grouse, or even a supermarket one (but not budget blends). Better still get a decent malt such as Glenmorangie / Macallan and then move on to real malts such as Talisker / Lagavulin, drunk neat of course.
end of diatribe 🙂