Moving to California, I knew there was going to be a lot of wine. A lot of grapes, a lot of vineyards, and a lot of long lists at restaurants. My first alcoholic drink was wine in Italy, served with multi-coursed meals, so I had a soft spot on my tongue for wine. I hadn't had much of a variety in my undergrad experience, and most of those decisions were determined by price. So I was looking forward to the plethora of wines available in my new home.
What I wasn't expecting was the whiskey list on the drink menu to be just as long.
Before my enlightenment, I was under the impression that there were three types of whiskey: bourbon, malt, and mixed. Oh foolish, foolish child. Suddenly there was not only a list of whiskeys at the bar, but they were separated by more types than I could imagine - wheat, corn, rye, malt, rye malt, bourbon, blended, light, and spirited. And that was the breakdown of the American whiskies.*
Why are there so many types of whiskey? Because it's made up of essentially three things: barley, hot water, and yeast. Sound familiar? It's because they're the same ingredients in beer, simply distilled for higher alcohol content and stored for years in oak to balance flavor and give coloring.** We owe so much more to the Scots***, but whiskey still may be the greatest.
I have tried a couple at a few bars, but most of my enlightenment has come from Crown Royal. I'll work on expanding my network on both wine and whiskey fronts in the coming year. (In other words, to be continued...)
P.S. - THERE'S LIQUOR IN THE GROCERIES STORES...just had to get that one out of the way too.
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Almost immediately after moving to California, I noticed something strange: people were quite formal with their highways.
Back home, people would say Interstate 95, or 95 North/ 95 South. Suddenly, it didn't matter as much which way you were going on the highway, as long as you referred to it as "The 10". And it just sounds silly. I'm sure it's not the only "10", although yes the only one in California and most likely the only interstate one. But even the within-state highways get a nice formal "the" in front.
It's made me wonder what other things can be made formal...The Chick-fil-a. The Mount Baldy. The California. Pretty much anything...still sounds silly.
On the other hand, the metered highways does in fact improve traffic - sure, it gets slow sometimes, but until L.A.ians sit in D.C. traffic, they got nothing to complain about.
Plus there's no annual inspections - which I thought I would never appreciate, but the idea that you simply drive your car until something goes wrong without a maintanence test is all of a sudden quite terrifying.
And although my motorcycle license is still on my bucket list, I will not be getting it in California. The thing I'm most scared of (and really only scared of) driving here is seeing a motorcyclist, speeding down the line separating the HOV and fast lane, get sideswiped by a car chaning lanes - my heart leaps every time they pass.
*Fun fact: While every country is entitled to its own products, I still find the idea of Japanese whiskey perplexing.
**For more information on whiskey making, this video is helpful and makes me want to go to Scotland! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ga6_17skk
***Seriously, these people are really productive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_inventions_and_discoveries
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