It was at a British pub that I used to frequent in Sunnyvale, CA called the Duke of Edinburgh. The place is very popular with the British expats in Silicon Valley. My friend Rob and I used to frequent the place a lot. One night we were chatting with the bartender about scotches, how to tell a good one from a bad one, single malts, etc. The bartender poured us both a shot of Macallan 25 and Laphroaig (don't remember how old that one was) and asked us if we could tell the difference in taste. The Macallan was sooooo smooth. The Laphroaig tasted like drinking gasoline.