Drinks Time

What is the best time of day to drink whisky?

If they were allowed to answer this, the marketing people would say “any time of day”, but we are not allowed to promote enjoyment now, especially enjoying alcohol.

Dr. Samuel Johnson writes of the widespread Hebridean custom of the pre-breakfast dram, known as a skalk, a word which translates as a sharp blow to the side of the head, as in ‘skelp’. “A man of the Hebrides…as soon as he appears in the morning swallows a glass of whisky; yet they are not a drunken race, at least I never was present at much intemperance; but no man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, which they call a skalk”.

I have written earlier about the difference between ‘enjoyment’ and ‘appreciation’. I don’t believe you can enjoy a whisky at breakfast – I don’t even like whisky marmalade – although ‘True Scots’ might recommend whisky with porridge. Shudder.

However, assessing/appreciating whisky should be done on a relatively empty stomach, certainly before lunch, since our senses of smell and taste are much sharper early in the day than they are later.

A plate of porridge for breakfast is fine, a ‘Full Scottish’, with bacon, sausage, eggs, black pudding, haggis and beans’ is inadvisable.

Until the late 1970s, as part of their meagre reward, distillery workers were ‘drammed’ three times a day with a large measure of spirits – typically a gill (or a quarter of a pint), sometimes one-third of a pint - usually to coincide with shifts coming on and off duty: 6 a.m., midday, 6 p.m.. The performance of ‘dirty jobs’, like cleaning out the boiler, was rewarded with double drams. The thinking behind this was that it would discourage pilfering from casks in the maturation warehouses.

The mention of measures raises the interesting question of ‘drams’ and ‘nips’ and ‘tots’ – none of which are precise measures. A dram is defined as being dependent on the generosity of the pourer, and the same might be said of a tot, although a 19th century Butlers’ Guide states that “… an inch of whisky is a respectful measure in any glass”.

To further confuse matters, in the west of Scotland a standard bar measure (250mls) is referred to as ‘a half’, ‘a glass of whisky’ is a double. In the Gaeltachd a double is a Te Mhor (large one) while a single measure is a Te Bheag (small one).

In India a small measure is a chota-peg (roughly the width of an index finger) and a large one, a burra-peg, is double this. The terms were first attested in 1864, but were probably introduced by the British in the late 18th Century. The standard ration for the military, civil and police services was four pegs an evening.

The Sardars [leaders, officers] of the Punjab refused to accept this meagre measure, but the problem was cleverly solved by the Maharaja of Patiala who decreed they should be allowed two ‘Patiala pegs’ a day. A Patiala peg is the measure between the top of the index finger and the bottom of the little finger, with the two middle fingers folded inwards. The general rule of two-finger rationing was thus observed!