Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/760410
w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 | 5 1 ■cr The Great Whisky and Sugar Pairing Challenge: Crèma Catalana Pairing #1: Piloncillo Sugar with Glenfiddich 12 "After living in Chicago for 16 years, you go to a lot of Mexican grocery stores," begins Graham. "I was always fascinated by the little cones of piloncillo; it is such a wet sugar, because it has so much molasses in it, and I thought it would really make the 12 Year Old pop a bit, because the whisky is quite light, I thought the sugar would bring more roundness to it." Agrees Allardice, "The 12 Year Old being the lightest, Tim made the very smart decision to go with the richest, sweet- est and most flavorful sugar. It really enhanced the mouthfeel of the 12 Year Old, but didn't overpower, because the sugar is quite a bit less sweet than regular dark brown sugar." Crèma Catalana Pairing #2: Cherrywood Smoked Sugar with Glenfiddich 14 "I really wanted to smoke the sugar to play off the char on the barrel," says Graham, referring to the fact that the 14 Year Old is finished in deeply charred new American oak barrels after maturing in ex-bourbon casks. "It imparted a super smoky bacon flavor to the sugar, which added a nuance to the dish. You can pick up the smoke on the back of the palate, and it was really fun for me, as a chef, to manipulate the sugar toward a goal of being able to reach a certain flavor profile." "The 14 is fairly sweet, because it is finished for a few months in charred new American cask, so it was a good match to choose something a little less sweet," chimes in Allardice. Crèma Catalana Pairing #3: Unrefined "Really Dark Brown" Sugar with Glenfiddich 18 "I almost always gravitate toward unrefined sugars, even when I cook savory food" begins Graham, "because there's just more there. White sugar has been stripped of everything but the chemical structure; they're a choir with a voice of one. But un- refined sugars like this one have a lot more going on, and it was amazing when caramelized. All of those bits that are still there in the sugar get trapped in the shell, and you can actually see them there. It was such an awesome pairing." "The 18 Year Old is the most woody, most complex and has the biggest flavor, so this was a nice pairing that could stand up to the flavors in the whisky," commented Allardice. For more on Glenfiddich and David's pairings, follow @glenfiddichwhisky and @glenfiddich_dave on Instagram. 1 2 3