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!
