A day of old and new loves

First off, I (+friendys) visited the Jameson Irish Whiskey factory on Halloween - at 10:30 in the morning. Perfect time for some whiskeyz if you ask me. The tour was great. We learned a lot about why Irish whiskey - particularly Jameson - is different from other whiskeys, like Scotch or American versions. We heard the words "triple-distilled" approximately 583920932 times. Then Grace and I were chosen to participate in a whiskey-tasting/comparison session, where we compared Scotch, American and Irish whiskey. Scotch (we had Johnny Walker Red Label) was the worst, because it has a smokey taste due to peat being present somewhere in the distillation process. American (Jack Daniels) had a much stronger woody flavor, while Irish was the sweetest. Jameson won, duh. Actually we were encouraged to choose Jameson as the best by our guide (I mean, we WERE in a Jameson factory), but I think I like Irish and American nearly equally. They each mix better with different things (i.e. Jack with Coke but Jameson with Sprite/ginger ale). Also, the Irish apparently drink their whiskey with cranberry juice, which Brian tried once and it was nasty. Weird! After the free shots during the tasting we got a free drink and a diploma!

Fun facts!!!!!
1. Ireland and America are the only ones that spell the word properly: "whiskey." Everywhere else spells it "whisky."
2. Jameson has hints of vanilla and honey because they don't use new barrels, but only barrels that have previously aged port or bourbon.
3. Jameson is the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world.
4. Jameson is a mix of malted and unmalted barley. Scotch only uses malted. They told us what the process of malting does but its complicated to explain/I can't remember it exactly.

Then lunch was on tap at the oldest pub in Dublin, The Brazen Head. Yum!

As for the afternoon/evening, I can sum it up in two words: RUGBY ROCKS. We went to a Leinster v. Cardiff (an English team, boooo) match. Leinster, of course, was superior in every way and won easily, and it was incredibly exciting. My interpretation of rugby can be described in the following formula:

American football
- forward passes (laterals only - Millsaps should know something about that)
+ way more pileups
- sissy pads and helmets
+ awesome cheerleader lift moves when throwing ball inbounds
- sissy timeouts (or at least as many of them)
+ brutality
- inches of fabric on shorts (shortyshorts are popular)
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rugby

And its awesome.