Everything You Need to Know to Get Started Drinking Scotch Whisky

If you’ve never really explored it before, drinking whisky can be intimidating. Deciding what whisky to try first is a big decision. And once you decide, should you put in on ice? Drink it straight up? Try it with water? And how are you supposed to taste all these crazy flavors people keep saying you’ll pick up when you sip on it?

Depending on who you talk to, you’ll get a lot of different answers. Recently I chatted with Macallan’s Manager of Brand Education, Charlie Whitfield on the “right” way to get started:

What to Drink

“It depends on how much money is in your wallet or purse as well as to which whisky you go for to try your first one,” says Whitfield. “I’ve met some people who said the first whisky, scotch whisky, they ever tried was the Macallan 25 year old and at first I was impressed but then I was like ‘Oh wow, you’ve kind of set yourself quite a high bar for all the future whisky you’re drinking.”