As per my action plan, January’s ‘something new’ was a 1-day Whisky Ambassador workshop which was conducted by The Beverage Clique. The whole day course is S$680/person and Singaporeans can use SkillsFuture credits to pay for it. If you’re concerned about doing it in-person during this pandemic, then you can opt for the 2-day online course.
The venue
I have bar-envy right now. The course was held at The Beverage Clique’s office/bar/workshop space…whatever you want to call it…in Boon Lay. As I said, bar-envy.
They have the full set of the Game of Thrones collectible whiskies!!!! Again, I’m so jealous. I wanted the set too but I only managed to get the Johnnie Walker “White Walker”. They had a few other super expensive whiskies on the top shelf but…I’m a bit of a geek. I enjoy collectibles like these.
About the course
Every participant will get a handbook which covers the basics as stated in the course outline. This will also be the book to study from because you’ll be tested at the end of the day! Do read up on the cocktails section too although it wasn’t covered during the ‘lecture’ portion of the workshop but it came out in the test. I slacked and therefore, had to just eeny-meeny-miny-moe for the cocktail question.
Now, what we were all looking forward to was the practical part of the session! Hurhurhur…
That said, the mantra is “Drink less. Drink better” plus, we only had samples. So not enough to get you tipsy. Unless you’re a lightweight.
But I’m glad that I managed to sample so many types of whiskies in one seating. The last time I did a whisky tasting was at Macallan’s event so we only tried Macallan’s whiskies. But this time round, I got to try various types of whiskies from all over Scotland AND we also tried whiskey from Ireland as well as bourbon from the US. It is only when you do sampling that you can smell and taste the subtle differences.
That said, I smelt and tried so many whiskies that my nose was gone by the end of the day. The smelling samples don’t smell like the real things, I tell you. I like using vanilla, honey etc in my Kombucha and the ‘vanilla’ in that smelling sample did not smell anything like the real thing. Rant aside, it was because there was too much smelling going on that my nose decided to just give up. I was sniffing my skin and coffee to try and ‘reset’ my olfactory…but alas, it gave up during the practical exam.
Conclusion
I finally have a better understanding about whisky; and the differences between Scotch, whiskey and bourbon. I also learnt new things such as how barley is malted (I’m seriously considering doing this for my kombucha to up the alcohol content), how the distillation process increases the alcohol content (refreshing what I studied in uni and ‘A’ levels), and what’s a single malt/grain vs. blended etc.
I would recommend taking this course if you’re starting to appreciate whisky and would really like to know more. And of course, if you’re working in bar or restaurant that serves whiskies, it makes total sense to take this course.
As for the test, I will not know the results till next month…so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I passed! 🙂
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