Essence Review – Scotch Malt Whiskey
Phantom Distiller | June 8, 2008Here is a review of a Scotch Malt Whiskey essence, written by our newest contributor – the Phantom Distiller.
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? I’d be the first to admit that I’m no expert – yes I can tell the difference between a blended Scotch and a malt one. No I couldn’t tell you which Malt Scotch comes from which distillery.
From my point of view, it did, indeed, taste like a Malt Scotch, but I had to ask a friend if he could be a little more precise. He explained that he thought it had a “Glenfiddich” type flavour, not as good as the “genuine article”, but I’m not trying to pass it of as such. That would be doing them a great disservice.
Yes it did have more of a “hot” alcohol taste, though that might be to do with my not managing to dilute the spirit down enough (I was in a rush, so the dilution came out to 46% ABV), but as I say, I’m not trying to pass it off as a fake, just to attain a flavour that I enjoy, and this essence manages that quite well.
As with lots of the whiskey flavourings, you don’t get the “finished” flavour straight away, you have to wait a couple of days for it to blend together. Overall, I was very pleased with the results. 8 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!
I also tried this malt whiskey and to be
colin | February 6, 2009I also tried this malt whiskey and to be honest like i have said previously here none of the prestige range taste anything remotely like what they claim apart from ouzo and absinthe….to say they can reproduce a MALT whiskey is absolute rubbish!….i seriously cant believe people who buy the whiskey range of essences at prestige!…none of them taste anything remotely like whiskey and to try and say they can reproduce a MALT and an IRISH whiskey really is far fetched and wrong…
I made my own whiskey using actual oak chips from an English oak tree branch!….its cheap and easy ..the only downside is the time for maturation…at least 3-6mths to even start tasting like whiskey…
My advice to anyone is to leave the prestige range well alone unless you don’t mind the high cost per tiny bottle along with the ultimate disappointment you will find with more than 70% of the range…
If you don’t believe me try one of their amaretto style flavourings they don’t even taste remotely of almond or have any noticeable smell either.
the only whiskey flavouring i have found that actually tastes a bit like whiskey is the ”Ambrosia Oak Aged Whisky ” flavouring….but at 3 GBP for one tiny sachet that makes one bottle of spirit that has already cost me 2 gbp to produce means a total of 5 GBP per bottle of cheap inferior weak tasting whiskey!!..pointless when whiskey in the uk is only 7 GBP per bottle for the cheap stuff which is infinitely better than any prestige range product!
I remember when you could buy a 6 bottle high alcohol kit to make a Malibu style drink..it had everything and the flavouring was in a LARGE sachet…..very cost effective and good quality….
The same 6 bottle of Malibu style essences from the so-called Prestige range would set you back 9GBP!…just for the bottles….and it is a very weak inferior taste …plus you still have to purchase the 5 gallon turbo yeast kits to make the wash and then distill it!….after all that the price soon gets alarmingly unrealistic compared with 21% cheap versions of Malibu that can be found at 6GBP a bottle!
I seriously think these essences from Prestige and other companies are way to expensive and most taste rubbish!!