Something about world of the spice and smoke

I kept on walking the journey, which took me deeper and deeper into world of tastes. There has been many occasion, since the strawberry stop, that had stopped me to stare the moon and wonder what’s next. How would this and that cope with those delicious ingredients? Eventually, I took the right turn and dived deep into the bog with something I had stolen from the shamans. No, no mushrooms but something we at the mansion use often to give our food some meaning. Garlic, jalapeno and chili.

For this journey, I chose three smoking and smoldering drams: Lagavulin 12 yo Cask Strength 2009, the Ultimate Caol Ila 2000 Cask Strengh single cask and Ardbeg Corryvreckan. All strong and wielding the steel of powerness. These drams hack, slash and take you to the outer limits. Especially Caol Ila, which is very potent (63.7%), takes you to the another plane of existence.

The Garlic

The first encounter was with garlic, enhanced with herbal spells. Lagavulin was perfect and their both tastes got a boost. Smoke and garlic work so well together, while keeping vampire’s off your neck. Caol Ila was strong in taste, even so much that it somewhat shadowed garlic. They do work together, but as a pointy stick. You get the first impression, then the overwhelming magic fills your nerves – and if you are a nightwalker you will flee with awe. Not bad, but with this dram you won’t taste anything of the food and garlic..

The last was one of my favorite Uisge Beathas. The Ardbeg Corryvreckan. Filled with peat, smoke and tar I expected garlic to be blown away. And I was not wrong. Like Lagavulin, Ardbeg complemented garlic with wondrous tales and beautiful poems.

I must say, that if you are looking for a drink to go along with food that has a lots of garlic in it, you might want to consider Ardbeg or Lagavulin to go with it. Overall, I dare to say that peatsmoke does go very well with garlic.

The Chili

Next was the test of strength with chili and jalapeno. I don’t know what chili it was, but something that we had at home and it is handled with care. Strong spice, none the less. I served myself jalapenos and chili, finding the ultimate border with both of them. Jalapeno is usually found on Mexican food, but we tend to use them a lot on many servings.

Lagavulin works, as expected, with jalapenos nicely. It burns somewhat, but in a good way. Taking it with chili, will bring some sweat to your skin – along with fiery sensation on your tongue. But unlike I feared, it is a not a Drawmij’s Instant Death. Instead, these two fighters work together and face a force far greater they could do together.

Caol Ila gives no mercy and will cut you into small pieces. Since I had already tasted the Lagavulin and chili, this is a real killer. Jalapeno + chili accompanied by Lagavulin and then jalapeno and Caol Ila it gets you to hell and then to very high euphoria. Caol Ila’s demeanor and intimidation do create new worlds. After a while, the peak withers away but there is still strong battle going on. Recommended only for those seeking how to break the sense-limit. Funny is that was just the jalapeno. Taking some chili on top of it, did not create the dragon’s all-devouring breath I feared. Yes, the taste and sensation is very strong but with a successful saving throw you can take it and experience the bliss.

Finally the everswirling maelstrom of Corryvreckan. First, with jalapeno you don’t get anything extreme. It is like they are meant together. After the first sip, if you wait, you will get the real taste and burn. With chili, note that this tasting is done by one sitting, you get the dragon’s breath. Ardbeg does boost the experience, gets tears into your eyes and takes you to a trip across all levels of Abyss and Elysium. Tears of pleasure, tears of pain and burn. Smoke fills your eyes and lips can start a forest fire if you just bend low and kiss the tree's root.  I was flying and plowing at the same time.

The End game

Well, now that some of the tears have gone there is time for the analysis. I make it short. If you want to enchant the taste of chili, use smoke whisky. The thin line is somewhere at 60%. Caol Ila will send you deep down, while Lagavulin can be much more gentle. Ardbeg gets stronger as time passes, so Corryvreckan is an excellent sensation bringer.

Next time I offer spicy or highly garlic food to my friends, they will have to drink a dram of peatsmoke with it.  Saying no is not allowed, or they will end up hungry and thirsty.

Whisky experiments: strawberries

Since it is the summer and during this season strawberries are at their best, it is the reason to experiment a bit. For those, who are impatient: don’t do it.

I’ve been always keen to try out new tastes, when it comes to whisky. So far this journey is just beginning, but hopefully I can share some results as time passes by. I see no reason, why there would not be a good combinations of various whisky and food.

Strawberries.. They are very sweet and there is a very fresh taste when they are at their best. In this case, those were picked on the same day as tasted, and they were also organically produced.

I gave a few different styles of whisky a chance:

• Springbank 14yo single cask. This was a very much sherry flavored dram, but I must say this combination did not work out at all. It was all very bitter and tastes conflicted on the elemental level.
• Highland Park 16yo. Similar experience, than with Springbank 14. Sherry and strawberries just don’t work.
• Ardbeg Galileo. Perhaps Marsala wine would help? Perhaps a bit, but not much. I didn’t try combination with dark chocolate and strawberries, but I suspect it might just do the trick with Galileo.
• Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2006. Nope, didn’t work. The summery taste of Barley was lost and the result was a conflict again. Not that unpleasant, but not a good one either. No luck here.
• Benromach Peat Smoke. This was almost a ok mix. But still, I would not offer this to anybody as a delicacy. Peat did work out a lot better than sherry, however.
• Wasmund’s bourbon. This actually worked out the best. Strong tastes, but from a different world helped out. The result was much more in alignment with strawberries, than it was when tasting a Scotch whisky.

The result is.. Unless you really want to – strawberries and whisky are not a taste that go together as raw elements. Bourbons however, might do the trick to some level but it was not nearly as good as mixing strawberries with a sparkling wine. But I will continue experimenting, and check out if – by a cosmic chance of the vast universe  - some tastes do actually lock in to each other like tar to your favored cloth.

Summer continues! Slainté!