Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Fuzzy: No, we haven't tried them. What we've heard from friends is that they do cool down the drink in those cases where you do not want it diluted but do want the temperature reduced.

Sometimes we add water because it does change the drink (in some cases quite substantially) as Paul described above, but sometimes we want to taste the scotch at full strength. We'd like to try them given the positive reviews we have heard from friends but until now the price has been absurd.

Continuing this hijack - - -

In my scotch tasting classes the professional tasters (usually they also write about it) insist that they taste professionally only straight stuff (undiluted) so that all products are equal between them and the retail consumer but they drink it socially or privately either way - diluted or straight. Their reasoning is that no 2 people put in the same amount of water or the same type of water (tap, bottled, etc.). Shape of glasses gets into another whole class of arguments.

I'm with Paul - just drink it!

Darcie,

Soapstone is pretty cheap. Seems like you could find some small soapstone cubes at a craft store somewhere for $0.75. For that matter, I'd think that marble or granite would work pretty well, except it would scratch the glass.