Valkyre's Weblog

Scotch and a Sore Throat

So, Mike and I were talking about his love of Scotch. He likes straight malt scotches, no blends, the older, the better. I once went to Costco, once, years ago, and spent half an hour poring over their stock of scotch brands to pick one out for him. I wrote off Chivas Regal immediately and was looking at all the other brands. They had some blends that were older, but I knew he didn't like blends. The only straight malt scotch I figured met his criteria was a brand called Oban. The Oban was a a 14 year old scotch. He liked the Oban, said it was quite nice. Well, later on, his brother went to Scotland and brought home the bottle in the image above. You can see when he brought it home. 2002. You can also see the year it was distilled, 1959. (The age is barrel time. Mike thinks it's about a 30 year old) And, you can see how little Mike has consumed over the years. Anyway, Mike and I were talking, and he was going on and on about how great it was. He said it's like tasting a "walk in the fog". I had had a sore throat all day. It wasn't the usual, dry weather, type scratchy throat. More, like the "I am going to get a nasty cold" type sore throat. The kids where your throat feels all hot, sore and swollen, deep down. "I bet a drink of that scotch might make my throat feel better!", I said. I'm not a scotch drinker, but the way Mike was describing how it goes down, made it sound good. He poured a small amount into a glass. He told me to sip it, let it sit on my tongue and roll back. I did exactly what he said. It felt real good on my sore throat. It made me feel a little better. It wasn't enough to get me drunk, so that wasn't the reason I felt better. It was just real soothing on my sore throat. It's not a cure that I recommend though.