Cocktails aside, hitherto the whiskey (or whisky) drinker has faced four options for enjoying his liquor. He or she can take it:
- neat at room temperature; or
- with a little tepid water.
If he finds taking it at room temperature a bit too boozy, he can either drink it:
- on ice; or
- bone-cold from the freezer.
Now, happily, the whiskey-lover has another option: cooled. Take one or two of Hammerstone’ Whiskey Disks from the freezer, slip them in a glass, and let the frigid rock cool the whiskey without watering it down. (And we won’t even speak of keeping whiskey in the freezer, which really suppresses the flavors and should be done only with a few brands.)
The skeptical reader might object, “But what about taste? Won’t putting rocks in my whiskey make it take like, well, rocks?” Nope. We found no effect on the flavor when we put them in our whiskey. As a second test, we tried a stone in a nearly flavorless vodka. Again, there was no effect on the flavor. For a third and ultimate test, we licked one of these stones (when it was warm not cold—we’re not idiots) to see if the stone possessed any flavor. It didn’t taste like anything.
And you need not worry about ruining your snazzy glassware by dropping rocks in it. Hammerstone explains: “Soapstone is soft. Because its main mineral content is talc, soapstone is not only soft to the touch, but can often be scratched with a fingernail as well. Therefore, it cannot scratch glassware.”
After we use them, we run them under water for 10 seconds and let them dry before popping them back in the freezer.
So, kudos to the guys at Hammerstone for coming up with this clever idea. A box of four Whiskey Disks makes a superb gift.
You can read more about Hammerstone’s Whiskey Disks at http://whiskeydisks.com/.
