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Get into the Spirit of Christmas with a Christmas Jumper...with a difference!

7/11/2015

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I love Christmas. I love seeing all the Christmas decorations going up in shop windows and Christmassy gifts appearing on the shelves (as long as it’s before Halloween - earlier than that is just taking it all too far, even for me!). I love the family get togethers, the santa stockings, Christmas dinner, the whole bit. What I have not felt the love for, until now anyway, is the Christmas jumper! 

It seems that Christmas jumpers are now practically obligatory though, for work Christmas dos, family get togethers and anyone working in a retail or service environment in the run up to Christmas. So going on the theory, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, I have decided to create my own Christmas jumper for this festive period. But, it’s a Christmas Jumper with a difference, cause all of the elements of the design are related to whisky! A hommage to the other ‘spirit’ of Christmas, if you will!
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​These are available to pre-order from the web shop now, and will be shipped from the 30th November onwards. I’ll only be producing a limited amount of stock of these so I would highly recommend pre-ordering now so you get the size and colour you want. These will be priced at £25.00 including free worldwide shipping, however, as a special pre-Christmas treat I am offering a 10% discount for the first week (so on all orders received up to the 14th of November) as well as the free shipping.  Merry Christmas from Whisky Impressions!
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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 11 - Eleven Pipers Piping

23/12/2014

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We are approaching the end of our wee Christmas countdown and Day 11 brings us Eleven Pipers Piping. Whisky springs immediately to mind as you’ve got that old classic 100 Pipers blend, or, the most widely sold whisky in the world, Bagpiper (which despite the name is actually made and consumed in India! And despite being branded as a whisky is actually made from molasses so technically more rum than whisky)

My inspiration for Day 11’s tenuous link drink though comes from one of the biggest piping events, the World Pipe Band Championships, held every year on Glasgow Green. 223 bands competed in the 2014 event, which attracted some 30,000 spectators. The winners, for the 4th year running were the Field Marshall Montgomery band, from Lisburn in Northern Ireland. Lisburn is also home to the Hilden Brewing Company, so my choice of tenuous link drink for Day 11 is a pint of Hilden Ale. Cheers!
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On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me;
Eleven Pipers Piping
Ten Lords a Leaping
Nine Ladies Dancing
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree


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Tenuous Drinks Day 7 - Seven Swans a-Swimming

19/12/2014

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Hmm, let’s see, swans? Where can we go with this? 

Well, the Diageo Flora and Fauna range could be a good start - their bottlings of Linkwood featured a swan on the label. Alternatively, you could try a wee Penderyn Welsh Whisky since the Master Blender there is a certain Jim Swan. 

It seems that after having no links at all to whiskies for the first 4 days of this countdown, I now can’t get away from it! Let’s have a look at the history then, see if that gives us any alternatives. According to Celtic and British mythology lost loved ones would come back as swans, which had gold or silver chains around their neck to symbolise their enchantment. Swan necks… that’s taken us back to whisky again hasn’t it! Or spirits anyway. I’m just going to have to go with the whisky angle again on this one as the link to swan necks seems too good to ignore.

Swan necks then are a feature on all copper pot stills. One of the largest manufacturers of copper pot stills is Forsyths in Rothes, in the heart of Speyside. Part of the Forsyths plant is on the site of what was, until relatively recently, the Caperdonich distillery so for Day 7, let’s go for Caperdonich*!

(* Another closed distillery, so if you are struggling to get hold of some, you could always go for some Glen Grant, since Caperdonich was originally known as Glen Grant 2)

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Mark standing on the rubble of Caperdonich, mourning its demise!
On the Seventh Day of Christmas my true love sent to me;
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree




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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 6 - Six Geese a-laying

18/12/2014

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Day 6 and we are still on the bird theme, this time geese. The obvious choice for today would be Grey Goose vodka, produced in the Cognac region of France. Bit too obvious though, isn't it. I really feel I need to make you work a bit harder for your tenuous links drink.

As well as being a very tasty addition to a traditional Christmas dinner, geese were also honoured for their protective services. (Have you ever been stuck in a field with a load of geese when they all start running towards you? Scary. And noisy. I can see why they were effective protectors)

So, on the subject of protective geese - Dumbarton distillery, near Glasgow, was once renowned for having a gaggle of ‘guard geese’ as its site security. There were actually three different types of whisky produced on the one site; Dumbarton grain, Lomond and Inverleven single malt (The Lomond still is now at Bruichladdich). The distillery closed in 2003, but you can still find bottles by the likes of William Cadenhead*, Scotland’s Oldest Independent Bottler.

Day 6 then, get yourself a dram of Dumbarton. Might take a bit a tracking down but hopefully worth the effort.

*Yes, this is a shameless plug for my husband’s employer. Other indy bottlings are of course available too!
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On the sixth Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me;
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree




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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 5 - Five Gold Rings

17/12/2014

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On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Five Gold Rings
Four Calling Birds,
Three French Hens,
Two Turtle Doves 
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

At first glance, the gift of 5 gold rings seems very extravagant after all the birds gifted on previous days, but apparently the 5 gold rings actually referred to ring necked birds, like a pheasant, which were considered quite exotic at the time of writing. Good to know that the gift giving ‘True Love’ in the song finds a theme he likes and then sticks to it!
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So, what are we going to drink today to link in with the Five Gold Rings? Goldschlager springs immediately to mind - it’s even got real gold flakes in it - but doesn’t really fit with the rings. Let’s see…rings…There are 5 Olympic Rings and the aim of the Olympic Games is to win gold medals. The Olympic Games originated in Greece so maybe we should be looking to Greece for inspiration? Possibly the most well known Greek national drink is ouzo (as anyone who has been there on holiday can probably attest to, and, if you are anything like us, probably has a dusty bottle of it at the back of a cupboard somewhere to prove it) but we’ve already had raki as one of our tenuous links drinks so I think I’ll pass on that one.

In fact, it just strikes me that I’ve got to Day 5 of this little blog series and still haven’t had a whisky! This, I feel, must be remedied. So, for day 5, it’s got to be Macallan Gold - not only is it the appropriate name, but the water to produce Macallan is drawn from the Ringorm burn, so it’s a perfect fit really. While you are enjoying your dram, reflect on the words of a certain Macallan marketing buddy who was heard to describe Macallan Gold as ‘the quintessential essence of what is the Macallan’. 

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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 4 - Four Calling Birds

16/12/2014

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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 4 - Four Calling Birds

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Four Calling Birds,
Three French Hens,
Two Turtle Doves 
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

This one gave me a bit more trouble than yesterday’s as I tried to think of different types of calling birds - canaries maybe? I remember drinking quite a lot of honey rum one year in the Canary Islands but I’m sure I can come up with a better tenuous link than that.

Then I read that in the original song, it was actually Four Colly Birds, not Calling Birds. What on earth are colly birds you may well ask? Turns out that colly meant black (as in coaly/coal maybe?) so probably referred to blackbirds or crows which were something of a delicacy at the time (remember the nursery rhyme with the four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?) Doesn’t sound very appetising but the black bird angle does open up a few more potential drink options;


Black grouse anyone? Or Coal Ila at a push going on the black/coal link?

My final choice of tenuous link drink for today though has got to be a glass of Merlot. The reason? We all know that merlot is a type of grape, but it is also a literal translation of ‘young blackbird’ in French. Not so many people know that. (Including me, much to my shame when my non-French speaking husband pointed this out to me!). 

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Tenuous Links Drinks - 3 French Hens

15/12/2014

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On the Third Day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves 
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hmm, so what to have on day 3 of our Christmas Drinks countdown? As soon as I saw this one I thought of some kind of flip, made with a whole egg, to tie in nicely with the hen part of the equation. Flips are basically made from any fortified wine or liquor, shaken with a whole egg and sweetened with sugar. Given that there are some cracking French spirits around out there, this seemed like the perfect solution!

Diffords Guide (always a good source of cocktail inspiration) has a good generic recipe that can be used with your base spirit of choice;
2 shots Brandy/Whisk(e)y/Rum/etc
1 shot Sugar Syrup
1 fresh egg (yolk and white)
1/2 shot Unsweetened Single Cream

Shake all ingredients over ice and fine strain into a martini glass.

Alternatively, serve hot in a toddy glass - just heat the ingredients in a microwave or in a pan over the stove. Although this appeals to me less, this is maybe the more ‘authentic’ version as the original flips, way back in the late 1600s, consisted of a tankard of ale to which a mixture of sugar, eggs and spices was added before being heated with a red-hot iron poker from the fire. I wouldn't recommend trying that one at home.

The subject being 3 French Hens, I would suggest trying cognac, armagnac or maybe calvados as the base spirit. Or why not all 3 to see which works best? It is Christmas after all!
While I was quite pleased with today’s link, it doesn’t seem very tenuous, so in the spirit of tenuous links (and for those that aren't too keen on the idea of raw egg in their cocktail);

Hen in French is poule, so why not pull yourself a pint? I reckon it has to be a pint (or three) of Old Speckled Hen but of course the choice is yours!

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Tenuous Links Drinks Day 2 - Two Turtle Doves

14/12/2014

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On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two Turtle Doves
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Okay, so day 2 is looking a bit trickier. Nothing containing or featuring turtles or doves immediately springs to mind. A quick internet search though brings up a cocktail called a Turtle Dove;
2oz vanilla vodka
2 oz Frangelico
1 oz Amaretto
1 1/2 oz full fat milk
Shaken over ice and strained into a Martini glass.

Apart from the fact that it sounds like an alcoholic milkshake (one of my least favourite drinks - milkshakes that is, not alcohol!) it’s also not very imaginative.

Back to the drawing board then, or in this case google, to see what else I can find. 

Now doves are generally considered a symbol of love, so maybe that gives us something more promising to work with? Turns out it does.  The Phonecian goddess of love, Astarte, is said to have hatched from an egg, warmed by two turtledoves, on the banks of the Euphrates river. The source of the Euphrates is in Turkey (appropriately Christmassy I thought) where the national drink is the anise-flavoured Raki. 

Day 2 then in our Christmas countdown, Raki! Similar in style to Greek Ouzo or French Pastis, Raki is generally drunk diluted with cold water, turning it a milky white colour which the Turks call lion’s milk.  I’m not much of a Raki connoisseur I must confess so if anyone has any recommendations please share them.

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Tenuous Links to 12 Days of Christmas Drinks

13/12/2014

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According to my advent calendar (yes, I still get one, my Mum buys me one every year!) there are 12 days to go til Christmas, which made me think of the song 12 Days of Christmas. You know the one, ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree, etc etc’.

I also recently read a very funny wee book by John Julius Norwich about the 12 Days of Christmas giving an amusing insight into what the recipient really thinks of the 12 imaginative gifts her true love sends her, accompanied by illustrations by Quentin Blake. I’ve always liked Quentin Blake, ever since reading all the Roald Dahl books as a kid. 

Anyway, back to drinks which is the whole point of this post - I thought it would be fun to do a wee Christmas countdown, finding drinks that tie in with each of the 12 days of Christmas. A quick google search showed that I was by no means the first to think of this little ploy so I’m going to try to go for slightly more tenuous connections* rather than the obvious.

So, Day 1 - A Partridge in a Pear Tree…

Well, the pear bit is easy, you could have Kopparberg Pear Cider, or Babycham for that retro vibe (as a bonus it has a Christmassy deer/reindeer type thing on the label) or even a Poire Williams for a little bit more class. But what about the Partridge? At first, I thought, a partridge is a game bird, so is a Grouse… some kind of Grouse and pear concoction maybe? That seemed a bit of a cop out though so after a bit of digging I discovered that the Partridge in a Pear Tree was originally intended as a gift of fertility - partridges being the reproductive equivalent of rabbits in ye olde days, and fruit trees often used in fertility rites, such as wassailing.

Wassailing apparently involved pouring a mixture of cider, honey, spices and pulp from a burst apple around the base of the fruit tree. Hmm, sounds a lot like mulled cider to me so day one is going to be mulled cider, whether you choose to drink it while dancing around a pear tree is entirely up to you!

Here’s a recipe for Mulled Cyder using King’s Ginger Liqueur that I found in Hot Rum Cow magazine;
50ml The King’s Ginger
150ml Aspall Suffolk Cyder
150ml Aspall Apple juice
Serve in a handled glass, hot or over ice, garnished with lemon, cinnamon stick and fresh blackberries if you have them. 

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* Disclaimer: My choice of drink is not a recommendation or an endorsement of said product, it is solely to do with how well I think it ties in with the Day of Christmas in question. If it happens to be palatable, or even very tasty, then so much the better but no guarantees! 

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Yuletide Recycling (or up-cycling as I believe it is known)

10/12/2014

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I love this time of year - the build up to Christmas is well under way and everywhere is looking very festive with more Christmas lights and decorations appearing every day (when you can see them through the lashing rain/hail/sleet anyway!). 

So, to get into the Christmas spirit, here are some ideas for some whisky/drink related Christmas decorations.

Now I don’t know about you, but in our house we go through a lot of wine. For some inexplicable reason we started chucking the corks into a big bowl in the living room rather than in the bin. Not sure why but it did result in us building up a bit of a cork mountain. What to do with them all? Just throwing them away didn't seem right so I decided to thread some onto ribbons to make Christmas tree garlands out of them, as you do. Now obviously I am a bit biased but I think they look pretty good hanging on the tree.  As I mentioned though, we do go through a lot of wine, and there’s only so many cork garlands you can fit on one tree so we do have a bit of a surplus of cork garlands now! Any takers? I can always add some to the webshop… 
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Continuing the Christmas tree decorations theme, this year I also made some baubles out of some bungs we had lying about the house (no, sadly we don’t have our own private warehouse at home, they were left over from our wedding last year when we used them as place name settings.) Adds a bit of rustic whisky-ness to the tree I feel, without it being too blatant! 

As you can see, my own creations are very much small scale but others take it to a totally different level.
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At the Campbeltown Christmas Market this year The Wee Toon Carver had a fantastic Christmas tree made entirely out of old cask staves. Very cool indeed. Just to add to the effect it was decorated with fairy lights and  whisky miniatures - who wouldn’t want one of them at home?  Not only pretty to look at but practical too as the ‘branches’ all rotate so it can be packed away flat for storage. 
My absolute favourite bit of whisky themed Christmas recycling/upcycling of recent years though has got to be the Jack Daniels barrel Christmas tree. (Have you seen the advert?) I want one! Sadly we don’t have a big enough garden or I would be round at Springbank trying to scrounge enough empty casks to build one for myself! … Maybe a tad excessive but hey, it’s Christmas!
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    Whisky Impressions is run by Kate Watt. Previously at Springbank and then Glenfarclas, I now design some whisky related stuff and write about it, and anything else that takes my fancy, on this blog.

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