The idea behind the liquor tasting – bring in some fine liquors that aren’t typically found in bars, put a price on it that’s not outrageous, and sell a limited number of tickets.  It’s the experience we’re after, really.  We chose to start with Irish whiskey because, well, it’s our top seller.  Stonefly regulars sure love their whiskey, and we love our regulars, so that seemed like a fitting place to begin!

The $20 ticket included a flight of six Irish whiskeys.  Since it was our first liquor tasting, we didn’t know what to expect.  We didn’t want to have to haul anyone out in a wheelbarrow at the end of the night, so we added some soak-it-up foods.  We thought everyone should learn a thing or two about how the nectar is made, so we asked Nic Lee from Glacier Distilling to give a slide show presentation which was informative AND entertaining.  Then, we had expert Irish whiskey drinker and true Irishman, Alan Ruby of Hungry Horse Liquor Store, present each of the six whiskeys.  And we invited Kyle Dean to play some music for the crowd.  Despite a literal blizzard that night in January, we had 18 tasters!

We started the taste with Jameson and Michael Collins, two of the Irish whiskeys we had on the shelf in the Lounge.  From there, we took it up a notch with each of the following:  Black Bush (by Bushmills), Tyrconnell, Jameson 1780 (12 year) and Redbreast.  The overall impression, glass after glass was…yum!  We LOVED the Tyrconnell and the Redbreast.  We did learn a lesson though – after 5 glasses of whiskey, the best-for-last theory for the sixth may be  “wasted” on us.  So, a re-tool of the tasting is in order for the Vodka tasting coming up in March.