Irish whiskey is the fastest growing spirit category in the world right now. Photo: The Star/Chan Tak Kong
Who invented whisky, the Scots or the Irish, is a debate as old as time, but one thing is for sure, the old Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland is the world’s oldest official whiskey distillery, going back to 1603. The word whiskey itself is derived from the Gaelic word uisce (or uisge in Scotland), meaning “water”.
Simply put, Irish whiskey is whiskey that is distilled and aged in Ireland, regardless of whether it’s the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. It is distilled from a yeast-fermented mash of cereal grains (ranging from malted barley, corn, wheat, rye and so on), and aged at least three years in wooden casks. Unsurprisingly, this is quite close to how scotch is made as well.
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