He's a rebel of sorts back home in Scotland and his rebellious streak is also his USP! For more than two decades now,Robert Hicks has been blending Scotch whiskies and in the process developing various brands. Currently,the global brand ambassador for Teachers whisky,Hicks was in the city to introduce his latest creation Teachers Origin. In the past 100 years,this is the fourth time that a new Teachers variant is being introduced, mentioned the affable Hicks,who experimented with malts and grain whiskies over a considerable period of time to come out with the Origin. The aim was to create a more traditional 19th century style of malt whisky,so I started with a base of Teachers own and our unique Ardmore malt whisky. I then combined this with numerous Speyside and Highland single malts to produce a heavy powerfully flavoured,malt whisky, the master blender explained passionately. To add complexity and subtlety,I added a small amount of grain whisky to enable the dominant malt whisky flavours to be eased and flavour bonds to be loosened allowing multitude of flavours to be more easily appreciated. For the unaware,Hicks emphasises the role of water to make Scotch whisky live up to its name. Scotland is known for its water but in recent years its not snowing as much it should and thats resulted in the water table getting lower. Nevertheless,when we bottle in India we have unique processes that bring the water quality to the exact same taste as that of back home, informed Hicks,who believes there are no rules on how a blend should be put together or how Scotch whisky should be best sipped. Blending is more of an art than a science and if you want to enjoy Scotch whisky then sip it the way you want it, Hicks surprises us with his take. Yes,you wont find too many Scotsmen advising you to mix up Scotch with anything but in Brazil they mix Teachers with Red Bull,back in the UK,the youngsters mix up our whisky with a dash of lime and cola.its up to you how you want to enjoy your drink, Hicks smiles to say. For someone who tastes as many 40 varieties of whisky in a given working day,well take his word for it!
