After scouring the vast reaches of the internet for what felt like an eternity, but was really just enough time to down half a naggin, here's what we've unearthed:
- A naggin, for the uninitiated, is a petite 200ml glass vessel brimming with spirits—your usual suspects: vodka, gin, rum, or whiskey.
- Think of it as the beginner's guide to booze, the training wheels of tippling, typically entry level spirits at a very low price point..
- Interestingly, our friends in Scotland affectionately dubbed it 'a noggin', adding a dash of linguistic charm to the mix.
- And speaking of charm, Ireland proudly holds the title of one of the world's top consumers of naggins.
- We, too at Redacted, are unabashed fans of the humble naggin.
As for its etymology, well, that's a bit of a head-scratcher. We've scoured dictionaries and delved into dusty tomes, but the origins remain as mysterious as the contents of Ronan's man bag. However, clues from the Gaelic language lead us to believe that 'nagin' in Irish or 'noigin' in Scottish share a common theme—a small wooden vessel for libations.
Now, here's where it gets literary: enter James Joyce and his magnum opus, Ulysses. It seems the beloved naggin makes a cameo appearance in Joyce's masterpiece, solidifying its place in the annals of literary libations. And thus, it shall forever hold a special spot in the hallowed halls of the Redacted Whiskey Book Club.
Around the Web
According to Wikipedia - who has summed it up pretty damm well:
"In Ireland, a naggin is a 200ml bottle of spirits. Major brands of vodka, whiskey, rum, and less often gin, are commonly sold in this size in off licences, especially independent (non-chain) shops"
We even found an antiques website list it as the following - speaking about it being used in Scotland.
"The noggin is used for serving individual portions of whisky and is equivalent to a "gill" (a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint no longer in common use, except in regard to the volume of alcoholic spirits measures)."
Naggins by Redacted
So why did we decide to do a naggin of whiskey? Honestly we thought it would be cool to put high end whiskey into a small bottle so the price would be lower and therefore making it more accessible.
We also know you can sneak a naggin into most places and not be notices. Also as whiskey lovers ourselves we have many a hip flask (lovingly) gifted to us. So for the next weeding favour or gift to a whiskey lover on the go - grab a naggin.
It is why we were so excited to bring our first naggin to the world of whiskey as a 20 year old single grain finished in a Barolo wine cask.
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