As winter drags on…and on and on and on… I sometimes reach for a taste of Sunshine in a Bottle to stave off the seasonal depression. Of course, I mean whisky (or whiskey—you’ll learn the difference in a minute if you don’t already know.)

Distillation to produce liquor has been around since at least 800 B.C.  We can thank the sometimes dark art of alchemy. Yep—alchemists living in the small numbered years of A.D. perfected the distillation process as they sought to transmute lead to gold.  When they stumbled on the recipe for Scotch, one can imagine, a fair number of them called it a good day’s work and retired to the banks of a nearby stream to contemplate the meaning of life. This is why –to this day—we can’t turn lead to gold.

My own whisky journey began with hot toddies prepared by my dear Dad and progressed to the current point which I like to call a mature but totally controllable addiction. Snakebite medicine, nerve tonic, or Who Hit John—whatever you want to call it—I loves me a wee dram of whisky in the gloamin’, I does. And another one a little later and after that I lose count.

What’s your favorite beverage for cold winter nights? What memories and stories spring into your mind with the first taste?

Test your knowledge with the Whisky Quiz (It’s just for fun) and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. I’m giving away something to my newsletter subscribers every month for the rest of 2017. In February, the prize is an e-copy of Zoraida Grey and the Family Stones.