Review: Whisky Boats 2011

Zuri Girl checked out the Whisky Boats this weekend. The four Burkiplatz boats were still packed on a rainy Saturday with sniftering fans, mostly of the male persuasion.

The place was full of men with cigars and glasses in hand, but that doesn’t mean a girl can’t have a good time here, even if she’s already attached. We found the most female-friendly activities at the Whiskey Boats this winter.

In fact, upon entering the boats the first thing we were greeted with were samples of Bibi Bigler’s limited edition Whiskey perfume. Snatch a bottle of the delicious fresh scent while you can, and check out her subtle flowery, Splendur, and for men, Cembra. Tell her Zuri Girl sent you. {Don’t worry about smelling like an alcoholic, this is a unique sultry scent one could wear to work.}

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Next we went on to the booze. First, we tried a lady’s sipping scotch from America, “Eagle Rare,” a ten year old Kentucky Straight bourbon whiskey which our hostess recommended as a mild sipping starter.

The lovely hostess, and her whisky from Best Taste.

We learned the technique of how to drink whisky: Not gulping it like a shot, as this Brooklyn girl thought, but first putting the whole nose in for a sniff, then swilling the drink until it “has legs” and finally sipping slowly on the front of the mouth –tongue to teeth.

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Next we went to whisky’s roots, Scotland, where the friendly native kilted salesman told us that the lowlands are known for “ladies whiskys” but instead offered us a highlands 46% single malt, “Tomatin”, the name of the region, which was quite delicious. My guest kept mocking my initial sour face, but that’s when I thought you had to down whiskey like vodka, I was actually able to sip this one, and the boats movement helped it go down a bit, though just don’t drink too much. Here’s the Smuggler and his staff.

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After trying some  50% Japanese grain whisky (Japanese are the world’s largest consumers of the beverage), we went back to our current roots: Switzerland. Gunter Sommer’s Smallest Whiskey bar on earth– it’s in the Guiness book of world records okay – was our favorite. Maybe because my friend is a Zuri local, but for me I found it the sweetest, smoothest and even a little flowery.

His tiny stand was enthusiastically recommended by two other Swiss locals who incidentally invited us to go skiing in Bermuda shorts this March. See you can meet people here! Even though their girlfriends were there, their friendliness made us consider the offer. In fact, we made lots of new friends at the Whisky Boats 2011 and we would definitely go back again.

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Contributed by Zuri Girl: Alyssa Pinsker – a freelance writer from Brooklyn currently living in Switzerland teaching yoga, English and working on her book, the anti-Eat Pray Love. You can find her on Facebook.