DAY 25

The Irish KNOW their whiskey better than Americans.

And I NEVER thought I'd say that!

We had to come into the city center today for a meeting with Professor Love, so Steph and I decided to wake up the Irish way- with whiskey of course. After catching a quick breakfast at Powers Court, we headed to the Jameson Distillery to learn about the wonders of whiskey making.



The tour started off with a video about the history of the Jameson family and it's founder- John Jameson. The company was established in 1780 with the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin. About 31 million bottles are sold annually, making it the best selling Irish whiskey in the world.

After this amazing history lesson, our tour guide asked for four female volunteers.

Naturally, Steph and I raised our hands, eager to participate in whatever he had in store.


We followed our tour guide through the different stages of whiskey making. First, we learned of where the Barley came from and who was in charge of delivering it. Next, the Irish barley is mixed into a malted or un-malted "green." It's then dried in a closed kiln fired by clean-burning anthracite coal to preserve flavor. Jameson whiskey is then triple distilled for optimum smoothness. The company's philosophy is balance, ensuring that no one flavor element overpowers another.




The next part of the tour made it THE BEST tour I've ever gone on (and by far beating the Guinness factory).

We had volunteered for WHISKEY TASTING!

Yep, only eight people in our group of 30 had the privilege of tasting Jameson whiskey compared to Jack Daniels and Jonnie Walker Black. It came out to be four shots overall, but by the end of it we were tasting experts. I have to say that the smoothness of Jameson really comes through when compared to other brands. You can definitely tell that their distillation process is FAR superior to America's (again, don't kill me when I get back to Texas my friend Jack Daniels).

In our midst of tipsy tasting and picture taking we met someone else from Texas! His name was Michael, and he was exploring the city by himself. We took this as a "Don't Mess With Texas" sign (plus he's from Round Rock) and decided to let him tag along for our days activities.



After drinking one more glass with cranberry juice (it's how they drink it here in Ireland) we headed down the street, eagerly seeking the next bus to O'Connell Street.

About an hour passed and we found ourselves at the Chester Beatty Library. The library is described as one of the best museums in Europe, housing a great collection of manuscripts, rare books, and artwork made by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. Some of it's artwork is from North Africa and the Middle East, making it very interesting to explore. A zin garden also sits at the top of the library for anyone wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of the city for a minute.


Top two reasons we wanted to explore it of course:
1.) It's FREE!
2.) Rick Steves said to

So, after enjoying a day of homework, Irish drinking, and a little bit of Middle Eastern culture, the three Texans left our mark on O'Donoghue's, Doheny and Nesbitt, and other pubs up and down Baggot Street and TRULY brought meaning to the saying "Texas Fight Y'all."