IRISH WHISKEY

No one knows when the Irish invented whiskey, but YES, they did invent it.

The distillation of Irish whiskey has a long history, though no one quite knows when it first began. Some sources place it as early as the 6th century when Irish monks brought the distillation process back from the Middle East. While we may never know for sure, the distillation process in Ireland is surely hundreds of years old and we can be thankful for those years of experience and perfection, years that have brought us to the stage we are at today.

	IRISH DRINKS Ring of Kerry, Shamrock, Irish Buck, Irish Fix, Irish Kilt, Irish Rainbow, Irish Shillelagh, Paddy Cocktail, PV Boyle, Tipperary, the essential, Irish Coffe, Mrs.Cahill's Irish, Coffee and for the brave Celtic Bull

In Gaelic the drink became known as "Uisce Beatha," meaning "water of life." The Normans called it "fuisce" and eventually it evolved into "whiskey." What needs to come together? Barley, clear waters, and peat for the fires to toast the barley are the key ingredients. They are certainly all found in Ireland!

Apart from the spelling, Irish whisk(e)y differs from Scotch whisky in that Irish whiskey is typically distilled three times (but not always) versus two for most scotches. The malting process also differs between Irish and Scotch, as Irish whiskey uses sprouted barley dried in a closed kiln that is then mixed with unmalted barley before being ground into a grist. This accounts for the smoothness of Irish whiskey and the "non-peaty" taste compared to Scotch.

It is regarded by many as a sad fact that from a land that once boasted tens of hundreds of distilleries, the demise of these establishments has plummeted to a level where only three legal distilleries remain in Ireland today. They are Bushmills Distillery in Co. Antrim, Cooley Distillery in Co. Louth and Midleton Distillery in Co. Cork. Of these distilleries, Bushmills and Midleton are part of the Irish Distillers Group, leaving Cooley Distillery as the sole remaining source of independent Irish whiskey.

IRISH COFFEE:

Hard to talk about Irish whiskey and not talk about Irish Coffee.

Read about Irish Coffee's interesting history and its world wide popularity in our feature on IRISH COFFEE >>

IRISH TOASTS:

How can we celebrate Irish whiskey and Irish Coffee and not offer up some great IRISH TOASTS>>

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