Scotch on the rocks: Drinking it right

International Scotch brand Teachers conducts sessions on ethical drinking

Teachers, an international Scotch brand, is all set to organise a series of Teacher's Scotch appreciation sessions to impart knowledge on ethical drinking.

One such session was held at the Country Inn and Suites by Carlson, Ludhiana, during the weekend. Arun Seth, senior vice-president, International Trade (South Asia) for Beam Global Spirits and Wine, addressed this session.

The session educated the participants of what Scotch whisky is and the minimum standards followed by producers of the liquor.

According to the standards formulated by Scotch Association and the UK government, the raw material used in making the scotch should be grain only. There should be no other source of sugar or starch.

Conversion of starch in grain should be through a natural process, it should be fermented only by yeast and matured in oak vessels for at least three years. The strength at bottling shall not be less than 40 per cent alcohol and the process of production and maturation should take place only in Scotland.

These sessions, started two years back in various hotels of the country, are aimed at educating general managers to bar tenders about different Scotch whiskies.

Seth said the purpose of such sessions was not to promote drinking, but ethical drinking.

"Either one should not drink Scotch, or if does, he should do it in a proper way. I have myself witnessed the making of Scotch whisky in Scotland and I know the years of hardships taken by the master blenders over the years. It hurts when I see someone mixing coke or juice into Scotch whisky, because it's not the right way of drinking Scotch whisky. One should either have it on the rocks (four to five cubes of ice with Scotch whisky) or with water or soda."

"Scotch is a whisky found all over the world and 92 million cases are sold to over 200 countries every year. 31 bottles of Scotch whisky are sold every second in these countries. Beam Global Spirits and Wine is one of the top four liquor companies of the world with a production of 32 million cases," he said.

In the weekend session, attended by more than 40 people from various segments of life, six different blends of Scotch whisky were on the table so that the participants can taste it and later differentiate between single malt Scotch whisky, blended Scotch whisky and premium and super premium Scotch whisky.

"A single malt scotch whisky is one which is a product of a single distillery, having a single malt as well as a single grain. While Teachers 50, one of the best scotch whiskies of the world, is a blended whisky with more than 44 different malts in it. This adds to a great flavour in the Scotch whisky," the participants were informed.

Interestingly, the age of the Scotch whisky, mentioned on the bottle, is the age of the youngest malt present in the whisky. Jagwant Singh Sandhu, a hotelier who attended the session, said, "I have been drinking Teachers Scotch whisky for many years but I never knew that it had 44 different malts in it."

In the end, all the participants said "cheers" to Teachers 50.