Water, yes. Ice? Never

"Ask for Scotch in the U.S. and before you know it you hear that horrible clink, clink, clink of ice going in the glass," Richard Paterson says in a voice that's two parts exasperation and one part burr.

"As far as I'm concerned," says the whisky blender with Scotland's Whyte & Mackay Ltd., "if you've got a nice 12-year-old Scotch whisky, there's nothing more ridiculous than putting ice in it."

From "How's Your Drink?" a column by Eric Felten, every weekend in the Wall Street Journal.