Trying to decide what to take as small ‘token’ gifts. My usual are photo books of the Missouri Ozarks and St. Louis and a few local cookbooks. I’ll take those, anyway. But, a great new idea struck last week.

I was visiting with Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate about our plans to do a bit of the Whisky Trail on this trip.
It turns out that Alan is almost as much a connoisseur of single malt as he is chocolate. He talks about the two with a very similar vocabulary. Mouthfeel, aroma, tannins, viscosity.
After our conversation, he sent me this link to his most recent blog entry – which happens to deal with the subject in depth. Single-Malt Scotch Whisky: The Fine Chocolate of the Beverage World.
I’ve now decided that the one little extra gift item I will be taking with me is Patric Chocolate. I ordered ten bars of the 67% Madagascar.
When Dan and I visit the tasting rooms of the less commercial and more artisan Scotch producers, I think we will open a bar of Patric Chocolate to pair with our tasting. We will also offer it to our host at the tasting room.

Hmmmm, now I’m thinking about a tasting party when we get home. Perhaps when we have our SlowTrav GTG at the end of August I’ll plan a Chocolate and Scotch tasting for our Friday night festivities. Maybe I can convince Alan to join us.
OK, time to go research these Talisker folks that Alan is so keen on. Need to see if they have a public tasting room anywhere near one of our four rental locations.
Post script: Drat! Weren’t planning to visit Skye at all. Now we have to rethink one of our daytrips. Talisker
Post, post script: Photo credit to Casey Meshbesher of the Chocolate Note blog. While searching for the photos, I ran across her fabulous blog, which is now on my “follow list”.