Tuesday 20 September 2016

Scotland Roadtrip Pt. II

Part 1

About a year ago I was bored and on a whim I logged into my twitter account that I had created a few years ago (but never really used) and started to follow a few whisky distilleries and bloggers. Back then I wasn't writing a blog or anything I was just a young whisky fanatic from Switzerland. Nevertheless I got a follow back from some whisky bloggers and other whisky enthusiasts which got me really excited. Ever since that day I am interacting with people from all around the world who share the same passion and it is really great fun. If you are on twitter you should check out the #whiskyfabric.
When I announced on twitter that I was going to Scotland I got a messsage from fellow whisky lover Justine Hazelhurst if I wanted to meet up in Edinburgh. Of course I wanted and so we arranged everything. Through a coincidence we chose a hotel in Leith which is the very same part of the city where Justine lives.
I was really excited to finally meet someone from twitter in real life and the evening with Justine didn't disappoint.
First we went to a Pub called Teuchter's Landing where Pascal and me finally got to drink a well deserved beer (We wanted to drink one in Folkestone but we didn't get the chance). After our pre dinner drinks we got a taste of a British classic - Fish n' Chips. We were quite hungry and we really enojoyed the meal. After the dinner we made our way to the bar to grab some drams.

 At Teuchter's Landing they got a very fun game going that is called the hoops of destiny. For £3.50 you get 3 hoops which you then throw at the bottles at the bar. If you can get a hoop around the neck of a bottle they will pour you a measure of that bottle. If you miss all 3 throws you get a glass of a blend called Sheep Dip so you won't walk away empty-handed. After playing the game we also hit two other Pubs and Justine gave us more suggestions what we could do in Edinburgh and Scotland than we could ever remember. It was really nice meeting Justine and you should check out her website.




The next day Pascal and me hit the city to explore Edinburgh. The city is really beautiful and we especially enjoyed the walk on the Royal Mile from Hollyrood Palace to the Edinburgh Castle. A highlight of our trip was our Lunch at the Usquabae Bar where we enjoyed our first taste of haggis (of course with tatties and neeps and of course accompanied by some whisky).
 Both Pascal and me are some serious foodies so we were really eager to taste the Scottisch national dish. It was delicious and we had great fun at Usquabae.

In the evening we had planned to go to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society with Tom Thomson from Toms Whisky Reviews (twitter is so cool, isn't it?) but sadly Tom couldn't make it. I had packed some whisky samples for him so he told us to go to the whisky shop that he manages and give the samples to his colleague Adam. In return Adam let us try some fantastic whiskies that were bottled for the Shop which is called Robert Graham. It was a pity that we couldn't meet Tom in person but I hope to run into him on another Scotland trip as this one was hopefully not my last. Nevertheless Pascal and me went to SMWS in the evening and enjoyed some fantastic whisky

The next day we had to say goodbye to beautiful Edinburgh. But before our drive to St. Andrews in Fife we had to get some Power and what better way to get that than our first ever full Scottish breakfast? The massive plate of roasted tomato, mushrooms, beans, haggis, link sausage, Lorne sausage, haggis, black pudding, bacon and eggs that destroys every bit of hunger until late afternoon is just delicious and I could eat one everyday if I didn't care about my health.

I was really looking forward to St. Andrews for two reasons. The first reason was that there we would go on our first tour through a distillery - Kingsbarns, the second was that we wouldn't do that tour alone but we had arranged a meeting with fellow whisky blogger Andy - "The Amateur Drammer". Andy was one of my first followers on twitter. He set up his blog half a year before I started using twitter for whisky related stuff and he followed me when he had around 300 followers and I had less than 10. Ever since that moment he is one of the guys with whom I interact the most and in spring I had the honour to feature on his Desert Island Dram series.
It was so cool to finally meet Andy and our tour was just fantastic. Andy, Pascal and me were the only people and our guide Lali did a great job. Kingsbarns is a new distillery that only started work a year ago. It is owned by the independent bottler Wemyss and so besides the Kingsbarns new make spirit we got to taste some very nice Wemyss whisky wares including the 3 distillery exclusive bottlings. After the tour we went to the beautiful café of the visitor centre and just chatted a little bit.

It was such a great experience to meet Andy, Justine and nearly meeting Tom and if you guys are reading this I want to thank you for taking the time and giving me some of the best memories of all the trip. I am sure we will meet again one day and let's hope this day isn't that far away.

If you guys have read this far I first want to thank you for your endurance. I will finish this article just after a very useful piece of advice. If you are interested in whisky and want to interact with some of the most amazing folks from all over the world, bloggers, people who are engaged in the industry or just like minded people then set up a twitter account and start tweeting about whisky under the hashtags #whisky and #whiskyfabric. Also you should definitely give a follow to the one and only @whiskyU_ who is most probably the coolest bloke that you could possibly meet on twitter :)
On the real though you should just follow a few of the #whiskyfabric @AustinTXScotch (I know you will read it, Catherine, thank you as always), @FlScotchlover, @whiskylassie, @amateurdrammer, @kaskwhisky just  to name a few and soon you are interacting with some amazing people and you can even participate in tweet tastings.

Cheers and I'll be back soon with some more articles for you, U

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