I'm Elizabeth Hotson and you're listening to Business Daily on the BBC World Service.

It's New Year's Eve and while some of you will be popping open bottles of

champagne, others will be reaching for the water of life or as it's more commonly known, whiskey.

It's a multi-billion dollar industry. Scotland alone produces seven billion dollars worth of the

stuff. So what's the allure of the golden elixir? Part of it lies in its

sheer diversity, says Rachel McCormack, author of Chasing the Dram. Earlier this year, we met in the

extremely well-stocked bar of the Scotch Whiskey experience in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

You can have your luxury Johnny Walker's, you can have your luxury duress, you can have your luxury Jewess Regal for the prestige of it, but there's also an entire world of whiskey that could be opened up to you and it is great fun.

If you drink alcohol, there is nothing as fun as learning about all the different tastes and all the different styles of Scotch whiskey.

There's everything from things that taste almost like rum that are really sweet

to really strong, heavy, peaty things that taste like a mixture of perfume and ash trays,

but in a good way.

Whiskey, whiskey on the shelf. You were so quiet there by yourself. Things were fine till they took

you down and opened you up and passed you around. John was the first one to pull you down.

He took one drink and he started to clown

Passed you to Hazel Jane and...

In the last few years, whiskey has shaken off its fusty image

And it's now a very trendy cocktail ingredient.

At Swift, a bar in the Soho District of London,

co-owner Mia Johansson,

serves what are considered to be some of the best cocktails in the world.

But I was pretty surprised to hear what the most popular menu item is. It's our Irish coffee. We make so many

...