Irish whiskey
The Water of Life
Pure Pot Still
The whiskey produce in the heart of Ireland is called Irish whiskey. Irish whiskey is of many types, such as Single malt, single grain, pure pot still, and blended whiskey.
Whiskey basically means “water of life”. The Irish and the Scots spell whiskey differently. The Irish use the "e" while the Scots drop the "e".
No Smoke
Irish whiskey is very similar to Scottish whisky. In fact some people are of the opinion that the Scots learnt how to distill from the Irish. The only place it differs in, is distillation. The Irish whiskey is distilled three times while the Scottish whiskey is distilled just twice. Another distinguishing factor of the Irish whiskey is that it never makes use of peat. Hence there are no smoky or earthy overtones of Scotch. There is one exception to this, Connemara Peat Malt Whiskey.
Irish Whiskey Distilleries
As compared to Scotch, Irish whiskey has fewer distilleries. In the last few decades there have been a number of mergers and closures, due to economical problems. Today there remains just three distilleries in Ireland. Each of these distilleries does produce a large amount of whiskey. The three distilleries are Midleton, Bushmills and Cooley. Cooley is the only Irish owned distillery.
Irish whiskey is often believed to be the earliest distilled beverage in Europe. This dates as far back as the mid 12-th century. The Old Bushmills Distillery claims to be the oldest distillery in Ireland.
Ireland was export oriented. Along with grains and foodstuff, it exported whiskey. Since the Irish whiskey is not as strong as Scotch, it did better in the export market. It out did the number of Scotch sales. People preferred the Irish whiskey to Scotch. In the late 19th century, it is said that over 400 brands of whiskey was being exported from Ireland to the United States.