Adam O'Connell

1 week ago | masterofmalt.com | Adam O'Connell

“No ice, mate.”Every bartender has heard this. Every. Single. One. Usually from a certain type of customer. You know the type. You might even be the type. And if you are, brace yourself. I’m referring to those who order a whisky or a cocktail with a smug little cherry on top of a request.As if they’ve just spotted the magician’s trick. The sleight of hand behind the bar’s cunning pricing strategy. No ice = more drink, right? Wrong. You haven’t hacked the system. You’ve ordered a glass of lukewarm regret.

1 week ago | masterofmalt.com | Adam O'Connell

Whisky is no longer just the pride of Scotland’s glens, Ireland’s green hills, or Kentucky’s rickhouses. It’s being made in Mexico and Argentina, China and Denmark, South Africa and New Zealand – and, crucially, it’s being taken seriously. You know this already, I’m sure. What was a curiosity became a movement and has grown into the new status quo. These aren’t just “emerging” producers anymore. They’ve arrived. They’ve evolved beyond being “new world whiskies”.

1 week ago | masterofmalt.com | Adam O'Connell

Ah, Mizunara oak. The whisky world’s high-maintenance muse. This Japanese oak species (Quercus mongolica) is prized in whisky-making for the distinctive flavours it imparts: sandalwood, coconut, delicate incense, spices, and temple wood. There’s often a gentle dryness and almost ethereal quality to whiskies aged in it, as if someone aromatised the barrel with a meditative walk through a Japanese forest in spring. But for all its elegance, Mizunara is as divisive as it is delightful.

1 week ago | masterofmalt.com | Adam O'Connell

This is our Top 10 Most Beautiful Bottle Designs. Got any favourites? Let us know in the comments below. Let’s face it: we all judge a bottle by its cover. The bottle design plays a big part in the first impression. A well-designed bottle goes beyond packaging. It’s branding, storytelling, even a bit of visual theatre all rolled into one. Some are sleek and modern, others are decadent, ornate, or proudly offbeat.

2 weeks ago | masterofmalt.com | Adam O'Connell

The London Distillery Company (TLDC) is back, and it has unfinished business. One of English whisky’s earliest modern pioneers, TLDC helped lay the foundations for the category before quietly fading into ghost distillery status. Now it’s returning under the stewardship of managing director and whisky maker Matt McKay, formerly of Bimber and Dunphail, and the brains behind whisky site The Dramble.