Glassware

@Mancub Out of curiosity, since beeswax is made by bees, are there any examples of "un-natural" beeswax?

Has anyone used ceramic cups to drink whisky? I really like the look of many wood fired Japanese yunomi cups, and thought if I found one that is the right shape and size it would make a nice casual sipping glass. Any suggestions? Any info on the safety of pottery and alcohol?

@Nozinan Synthetic beeswax, of course!

@gfc My aunt makes stuff. I'll ask her The glaze becomes like glass so it should be ok, and the traditional way of drinking some asian spirits is in ceramic cups.

Come to think of it...I'll ask my aunt to make me a couple of glencairn shaped cups.

I've been on the hunt for some different glassware of late, on my recent stint in Ottawa I picked up this Highland Whisky Glass. I've never seen this before. It's a little like a "baby got back" version of a Glencairn.

The aperture is about the same as that of the Glencairn, I like the fact it's on a stem which I figured would facilitate the "Ashok Manoeuvre".

Now onto finding out a source for those Kentucky Bourbon Trail glasses

@cricklewood A glencairn with a stem. That is just about the perfect glass.

@cricklewood Looks very promising. Please let us know how it compares to a Glencairn.

@BlueNote @Nozinan , it's pretty cool thus far. I haven't had much time to give it a side by side comparison with a traditional Glencairn to see how the wider bottom affects the nose. I will try it out this weekend

@cricklewood It may be necessary to purchase some... where did you find them? They're about $9 each on amazon, plus shipping.

@cricklewood, I agree with @BlueNote, "just about the perfect glass." I had a similar vessel with a longer stem, it didn't stand a chance. Two weeks and it tipped, resulting in a fatal collision with the floor. My favourite whisky glass to date.

@cricklewood I need a couple of those. Is Highland Whisky Glass the actual name?

@BlueNote This looks like it:

amazon.ca/dp/B077H3QL2B/…

@Nozinan I purchased mine at a small store in the Byward market (Ottawa), I paid 9 or 10$. Recently I noticed they are sold at Linen Chest and Amazon as you've discovered.

@BlueNote that is indeed the name I've included a photo of the box for reference

@paddockjudge, I know the feeling, I've broken too many nice glasses to count.

@Nozinan @cricklewood Thanks guys, I’ll be on that as soon as I get home. They look very stable with that short stem, and also very holdable.

@cricklewood I picked up a couple of these glasses yesterday since there is a Linen Chest just down the street from me. Really enjoying them, I didn't have anything stemmed so they are a welcomed addition to my shelf. Thanks for sharing!

@Mancub @cricklewood Mine arrived in today's mail, or were delivered by Amazon, or whatever. They look very promising. If I can stay awake I'll try tonight, and I think a H2H with a Glencairn is in the future...

@Mancub @Nozinan nice! Perhaps we could try and do a parallel comparison between both glasses. We'd have to choose a whisky we might all have...that might be harder but still possible.

@cricklewood @Mancub

Looks like we all have Ben 10 in our cabinets... maybe we should set something up.

Picked these larger glasses up at Corsair the other day. Compared to my usual glasses they are quite large.

So far so good...

@Nozinan @Mancub its on! I have a largish sample of the Ben10 left.

@casualtorture from what I remember those Arran glasses are proportionate to a Glencairn, making those Corsair ones indeed much larger.

The shape is reminiscent of stemless wine glasses

@Nozinan @cricklewood I recently emptied my bottle of Ben 10, but have 2 full ones on backup! Sounds like a plan. Also, Nozinan, last week I walked into my local LCBO and they had a case of Ben 10 on the shelf. It was not listed in inventory so I thought maybe I got lucky to stumble across it. I brought one up to the counter and to my dismay the price went from $59.95 to $79.95. Probably my favorite scotch at that price, sad to see it go up, but C'est la vie.

@Mancub Finding an unmarked stash must have been fun too bad it wasn't at the steal price of 59$.

I am fairly certain that the Reason Ben10 was offered at such a low price was because of change of distributor. If you find the old listing for Ben10 at 59.95$ you'll notice that the distributor was listed as "Earl Philippe Bonhomme", whereas the new influx of Benromach products are all distributed by Gordon & Macphail themselves. If the distributor had a bunch of stock prior to losing a portfolio they would want to negotiate with a buyer to get it off their hands quick.

This happened recently with Benriach after it's acquisition by B-F (although not at LCBO) which switched distribution in-house. A lot of distributors we're liquidating their stock and some retailers like K&L had great deals.

We've only seldom had the Ben 10 at SAQ and it was always about 80$

@cricklewood Thanks for the information, that explains some things. I noticed the packaging was different too, no more plastic top, just your standard cardboard box. I like it enough I'd still pay $80 for it....it just felt like a true gem at $59.

@cricklewood yeah the Arran glasses are proportional to Glencairns. These Corsairs are good for coming home after a long day. No refill needed.

looks just as good with Springbank 12 CS as it did with Amrut single cask (bourbon). Getting some great nosing too...

Did a quick little H2H of both style glasses using Port Charlotte 10. I am keeping the ben10 for weekend, I had some Palate fatigue after eating kimchi.

I covered the unused glass in between rounds. On the nose I felt like the Highland glass was brighter, letting some of the light notes through, more oak, less heavyness from the peat.

Further research to be conducted this weekend.

@Nozinan Great pic