A Whiskey Book for the Non-Geek: Single Minded 2015

People who want to learn about whiskey have an increasing number of reliable sources to choose from.  Along with hundreds of blogs, we are seeing more and more great books.  Last fall, both Heather Greene and Lew Bryson released comprehensive whiskey guides designed to move the reader from novice to geek.  But not everyone wants to be a geek. Some people don't care about classifications, history, distilling or regulations.  They just want something good to drink.  For those people, there is Single Minded 2015.

Written by whiskey writer Johanna Ngoh, Single Minded 2015 is a slim volume which, after a very brief introduction, gets right to the drinking, profiling thirty whiskeys of all different types.  What I love most about this book is that all of the whiskeys profiled are readily available and reasonably priced. There's no Pappy Van Winkle and no ultra high end limited releases.  What  is there?  Glendronach 15, Clynelish 14, Rittenhouse 100, Redbreast 12.  Sure you can quibble with a few choices (cough, Pike Creek, cough), but for the most part, these are great whiskeys that any geek would be happy to recommend. Even her list of five splurge bottles are also readily available and fairly modest in the world of splurges.

So for that friend who just wants a good drink with no muss and no fuss, pick up a copy.  The book, a series which has been coming out annually for the last few years, is available for $15 on the Single Minded website. 

Thanks to Johanna Ngoh for sending me a copy.