Please note that this article was originally published on August 4, 2017
Anthony Bourdain prefers to drink his Scotch whisky with ice. No matter all of the collective screams of Scotch nerds, Bourdain drops a cube in his glass.
Bourdain’s Scotch drinking preference was revealed on August 1 on the podcast Drinky Fun Time with host Dan Dunn. In a preview of the episode, Bourdain talks about being in Antarctica camping at a scientific research station by a glacier. Some of that glacier found its way into Bourdain’s glass via one of the people he was camping with.
“He said, ‘The ice I just put in your drink is like thousands of years older than even the idea of whisky,’” Bourdain told Dunn. “Hundreds — if not thousands — of years ago was when this water was frozen, and has remained exactly like that since.”
That may be true, but whisky lovers could combat that with the fact that ice in the glass dumbs the drink down and kills flavor, glacier history be damned. What’s interesting is that Bourdain is the spokesperson for Balvenie Scotch whisky. At a press event in New York City in late 2016, Bourdain sipped his Balvenie neat.
“I’m sure many people don’t like when I say it, but unless it’s something really, you know, rare and high-end like this, I’ll put a rock or two in,” he said on the podcast. “It seems to open it up a little in a way I like.”
And truth be told, people should drink Scotch whisky however they like it. Take it from Scottish bartender Jon Linstead: There are no restrictions on getting into Scotch whisky. Even for Anthony Bourdain.
