The Straight Dope Irish Whiskey Appreciation Society

Powers is my absolute favorite (not just of Irish whiskey, but of all whiskeys). Huge flavor. Smooth and strong. I’d never mix it with anything, but I do enjoy it with just a little ice.

I’ll go to Bushmills as my second favorite (and I like the regular, white-label stuff better than Black Bush).

I’m not a fan of Jameson.

Of the high-end stuff, Redbreast is nice. Middleton is nice, but not nearly nice enough to justify its ridiculous price tag.

10 years on, and the Black Bush is long gone. Now the only Irish in the cabinet is a bottle of Jameson’s.

Never was all that fond of Irish. The list goes bourbon, single-malt scotch, rye, Irish, water. :stuck_out_tongue:

Bushmills does still make their Black Label, which is my go-to Irish whiskey. (I still have a third of a bottle of Middleton Very Rare that was a special Christmas present, but it stays in the back of the cabinet and only comes out for very special occasions.) The 10 year old single malt and 16 year old triple wood are also excellent; never had the 21 year old. Not a fan of Powers or Tullamore Dew, and I think Jameson has become more of a marketing style than a whiskey at this point, but I’ll never pass up a bottle of Tyrconnell (especially the sherry finish) or Redbreast, and I have yet to try Green Spot or Yellow Spot.

Stranger

I have some 12yr and Gold Reserve Jameson, mainly because I’d seen it on different TV shows and thought I’d give it a whirl. I think the local (out in the boonies here) liquor store has Bushmills, I’ll grab a bottle of that and try it. I have more bourbon than anything.

Paddy’s is great, but VERY hard to find in the States. I like Powers because it’s the whiskey you get when you ask for a whiskey in a remote Connemara pub.

Bushmills is nice, but I’m embarrassed to ask for an Ulster whiskey if the wine shop man is Irish American. “Yuh BLACK AND TAN!”

Bourbon is still my first choice, even though I’m a mick meself.

Add another year and things have changed quite a bit.

The wife found a new Irish called Dubliner than we are both quite fond of. Lots of up-front honey. So that got me sampling other Irish to see if my tastes have changed. Boy Howdy have they!

A look in the liquor cabinet shows bottles of Dubliner, Green Spot, Jameson Double Barrel , Bushmill Single Malt and the one I’m sipping right now - Redbreast Lustau, which spends its last year aging in sherry casks.

Anybody else drinking anything of interest from the Emerald Isle?

I picked up a bottle of the Tyrconnell tonight. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but a peated Irish whiskey is always welcome. It’s a nice paring with vanilla gelato and an episode of Archer.

Stranger

No love for Green Spot and Yellow Spot? Paddy’s can be found in Mass and RI without too much trouble.

Not realizing this was a Zombie, this was going to be my response.

Static, 11 years.

Green Spot is in the cabinet and in the rotation. I’ve seen the Yellow Spot but haven’t tried it yet.

The "other half " and I tried some Writers Tears which we had hanging around for a while - we wanted to save it for a special occasion. We brought it to friends in our hometown of Montreal. Drank quite a bit of the bottle the night before going to the St. Patrick’s Day parade. We all drank it neat (my preferred method of drinking any whiskey). Highly recommended.

I also recommend Tyrconnell. Smooth and delicate.

I am not an expert on tasting notes, so I prefer not to weigh in them, but these two are lovely, IMHO.

Tullamore Dew is my house brand. I like. A lot.
Redbreast is good, it’s the favorite of my parish priest which makes it nice when we’re at the rectory for an event. :slight_smile:

Grabbed a bottle of Tullamore Dew a couple of hours ago. Nice tipple. I still prefer the Dubliner of all that I’ve tried, but the search for perfection continues.

Bushmills 10 Single Malt was the first proper whiskey I ever drank. (Shots of Southern Comfort and other crap in college don’t count.) Unpeated, not to expensive. I still like it but have moved on to single malt scotch. I’ll drink Tully, Jameson, regular Bushmills etc. if I’m at a bar and somebody insists on doing/buying shots. I refuse to shoot it, however. What’s the point of drinking good whiskey like that? I really haven’t found any Irish whiskeys that I prefer over a decent scotch but I’ll keep looking. I just saw Tyrconnell at the booze store yesterday but I think I’ll try to find it in a bar before forking over the money for something I may not like that much. I made that mistake with Michael Collins whiskey. With a name like that, I should have known better.

Try the Tully 15 yr. old Trilogy or Phoenix…but you might want to add a dash of water to the Phoenix(110 proof).

My FIL drank Jameson’s. When he died, we had him sent off with a bottle. It was so freaking cold at the cemetary, and he would’ve laughed his ass off, my SIL had the undertaker open the casket. We passed the bottle around and then put it back. :blush: