Still Smart

Another guest article from our new contributor – the Phantom Distiller – this time a review of an Irish Whiskey essence.

This flavouring essence was from www.stillshop.co.uk - they have an eBay presence as well as a web site – it cost £1.50 plus p&p (cheaper if you get more than one). It’s designed to flavour 750mls of alcohol/vodka. In my case, I made the spirit using “Still Spirits” brand yeast/carbon/finings/still.

Taste-wise ? This was a little weird, but illustrated handsomely the “wait a few days” approach. Why ? Because when it was first mixed up, I had a taste and was initially a little disappointed, in as far as it lacked “body”, wasn’t very well coloured and there wasn’t much of a “whiskey” taste to it, but what little taste there was did have that distinctive “Irish” taste i.e. it was drinkable.

After a couple of days, I tasted it again and was amazed at the change. It had quite a “big” whiskey taste, the “Irish” part of the flavour had receded considerably, but was still identifiable. The colour had deepened to a nice amber. I don’t know if it could be identified as being like any particular brand or not, I don’t know enough about Irish Whiskey generally. Again, I was very pleased with the end result and would give it 7 and a half, out of 10.

Caveat. It’s an offence to distil alcohol in the UK without a license. So if you do have a go, don’t try to sell it otherwise you’ll probably end up being chased by a nasty man with big teeth, carrying a large pot of vaseline, dressed in a “vizzy vest” with HMRC printed on it. Whether they’d bother about someone just making a litre or two on a hobby basis is anyone’s guess!

Many thanks to the Phantom Distiller for that review – if you have anything similar that you would like to contribute, please get in touch!