A while ago, much to my surprise, I got a shipment with two minis of Connemara Irish Whiskey – one of hte regular one, one of the 12 year old.

I’d actually had the Connemara regular before.? A friend of mine brought a bottle of it back from Ireland.? I actually considered it one of my “intro to Scotch” whiskeys for reasons I’ll disclose later.

On the other hand, I was disappointed they were only minis.? In my opinion, if you want a cocktail blog to look at your liquor, you need enough to experiment with.? One or two minis is NOT enough (as we’ve told people) – honestly, I won’t even really remember it.? You can’t work with two minis worth of liquor.? Most cocktailians prefer a fifth – 750 mL – or something close to that.? 375 is what I consider the minimum, and 500 isn’t that bad.

However, if you’re just going to TASTE the whiskey – well, I guess that’s okay.? Connemara is the kind of whiskey, however, that you’d really have to watch how you use in a cocktail and I can’t give any advice to that given the relative lack.

I poured both into shot glasses next to each other so I could experiment.? Some of you might detect the irony of what I’ve just said with the picture.

Immediately I noticed is how much clearer the 12 year old is.? It’s dramatic!

Tasting the regular Connemara brought me back to that old bottle of it I killed lo so many years ago (or something like that).? It tastes nothing like any other Irish whiskey I’ve ever had.? Instead, it’s an intense taste of peat that suffuses the entire essence of the whiskey making it the over-whelming characteristic of the whiskey.

In fact, it’s so much to the peat that really it bears, to me,? a lot more resemblance to Scotch than to other Irish whiskeys.? I have friends that love Jameson’s and Redbreast – I’d never give this to them without a hefty warning, though I’d have no problem giving it to someone who loved Scotch.

It’s also the kind of whiskey I’m not certain how I’d use in a drink.? it seems like it’d end up like Laphroiag or Peat Monster – something you use almost more as aromatic or something.

So let’s cleanse the palatte and switch over to the 12 year old.

Again, there is the heavy initial impression of peat but it is nowhere near as overwhelming as the other Connemara.? It’s a lot smoother over all, though I’m still a bit hesitant to think of how I’d use it in a cocktail without having more to experiment with (right now I’m thinking with something floral, but I’ve only got a third of a mini left in my glass…).

So what’s the short and the long of it?? Not knowing the price differential, the 12 year old is much better than the regular.? Both are more like Scotch than like other Irish whiskey, and at the same time, again, not being certain of the price point, I’d only recommend these if you’re a big peat fan, and not for mixing.