Glenlivet 8 Year Old Sherry Cask /1960s
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£600
Glenlivet 8 Year Old Sherry Cask /1960s is a 8 year old single malt whisky from the Glenlivet whisky distillery...
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Spirit Caramel (E150A)
If you’d rather the complete list you can find it here, be warned it takes a while to load though!
Jack Daniel’s Bicentennial Tennessee Whiskey
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£450
Jack Daniel’s Bicentennial Tennessee Whiskey is a bourbon whiskey. The best price currently available is from The Whisky Exchange for...
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Lagavulin 1987 Distillers Edition
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Lagavulin 1987 Distillers Edition is a 19 year old single malt whisky from the Lagavulin whisky distillery (located in the...
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Linlithgow 1982 25 Year Old Murray McDavid
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£749.95
Linlithgow 1982 25 Year Old Murray McDavid is a 25 year old single malt whisky from the St Magdalene whisky...
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Macduff 1997 21 Year Old First Editions
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Macduff 1997 21 Year Old First Editions is a 21 year old single malt whisky from the Macduff whisky distillery...
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Mortlach 1976 /2014 Gordon & Macphail
E150A Free
Our best price:
£
Mortlach 1976 /2014 Gordon & Macphail is a 19 year old single malt whisky from the Mortlach whisky distillery (located...
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SMWS 75.4 1979 14 Year Old
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
SMWS 75.4 1979 14 Year Old is a 19 year old whisky (located in the Highland region). The best price...
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Strathclyde 1990 26 Years Old Old Particular Single Whisky
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Strathclyde 1990 26 Years Old Old Particular Single Whisky is a 26 year old grain whisky from the Strathclyde whisky...
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Brora 1982 20 Year Old Rare Malts
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£1750
Brora 1982 20 Year Old Rare Malts is a 20 year old single malt whisky from the Brora whisky distillery...
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Cardhu 8 Year Old /1970s
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£500
Cardhu 8 Year Old /1970s is a 8 year old single malt whisky from the Cardhu whisky distillery (located in...
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Deanston 21 Year Old 1996 (casks 600009 & 10) – Benchmark (Murray McDa
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Deanston 21 Year Old 1996 (casks 600009 & 10) – Benchmark (Murray McDa is a 60 year old single malt...
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Glen Garioch 25 Year Old 1990 – Whisky is Class…ical (Silver Seal)
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£396.72
Glen Garioch 25 Year Old 1990 – Whisky is Class…ical (Silver Seal) is a 25 year old single malt whisky...
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| Whisky Bottle | Rating | Reviews | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gilbey’s 8 Year Old /1950s | 0 | 0 | £250 |
| Hatozaki Pure Malt Japanese Whisky Japanese Blended Whisky | 3 | 2 | £43.65 |
| Tullamore D.E.W. XO Caribbean Rum Cask Finish Blended Whiskey | 3 | 4 | £27.95 |
| Tomatin 21 Year Old – Batch 1 (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) | 0 | 0 | £137.95 |
| Cragganmore 14 Year Old Friends of the Classic Malts | 0 | 0 | £299 |
| Glenfarclas 105 Single Malt Whisky | 4 | 76 | £46.9 |
| Auchentoshan Blood Oak | 4 | 11 | £75.6 |
| Smokey Joe Islay Blended Malt Whisky | 4 | 31 | £31.63 |
| Avonside (Glenlivet) 1938 33 Year Old Sherry Cask G&M | 0 | 0 | £2500 |
| Knockando 1971 /1982 | 0 | 0 | £550 |
| Craigellachie 2006/12 Year Old/OMC 20th Anniversary Bottling | 0 | 0 | £60.95 |
| Glenkinchie 2003 Distillers Edition | 0 | 0 | £66.95 |
What is E150A spirit caramel and why do I care?
E150A is a food colouring agent created by burning sugar, it’s permitted as a food colour world wide and can be used to colour whisky. It’s the same stuff that’s added to Coa Cola and Pepsi to give them their dark brown colour and it’s regularly added to a number of grain whiskies, blends and even single malts.
Why are whisky brands adding colour to their whisky?
Spirit caramel is added to whisky for two reasons; firstly to normalise the colour between different batches of whisky and in some cases to enhance the natural colour of the whisky. How much of each occurs is a rather complex question as no brand would readily admit to manipulation of their whisky to mislead consumers.
E150A use for normalisation:
Because blends, and even single malt whiskies, use a mix of different casks in order to try and replicate their signature whisky styles. As every cask is different blending purely to replicate flavour can lead to colour differences between batches. A Laphroaig 10 from 5 years ago might taste virtually identical to one produced today but may be much lighter, or much darker depending on the casks used. To avoid confusion among consumers distilleries many distilleries ‘normalise’ the difference through the addition of E150A.
E150A for enhancement:
At the other end of the spectrum is the role of enhancement and this is particularly prevelant among the lower priced supermarket blends. When whisky is first distilled it’s crystal clear and looks like water, or vodka. The golden or even brown colour is a result of interaction with the barrel it is stored in. For cheaper whiskies older barrels are used and these impart less colour, they often favour larger barrels as well which means less interaction with the liquid (as a smaller barrel offers more liquid to surface area). To avoid these bottles ending up on the shelf looking like off-colour vodka spirit caramelis added to ensure the anticipated golden brown is present. In other instances such as Dalmore
Does E150A change the flavour of whisky?
Yes, E150A does change the taste of a whisky. That is our decided opinion, while countless brand ambasadors will dispute this point, or denounce us and refuse to debate the point we’ve done the leg work and are firmly of the position that E150A does change the flavour of the whisky.
We’ve conducted blind and double blind taste tests using E150A from multiple suppliers, and even using minscule amounts the taste profile does shift slightly. Interestingly this change is not always detrimental and E150A seems on occasion to round out a whisky. In most cases the whiskies are identified as being different, in some the whisky with caramel is preferred, in others the whisky without. There’s no added sweetness (E150A is very bitter) but no obvious bitterness added to the whisky unless absurd amounts are used, so we’re not condemning anyone for the use of spirit caramel. That said in the interest of consumer fairness we feel that consumers should be able to find out what’s in their bottle.
How do we get our list of whiskies containing spirit caramel?
By law any whiskies containing E150A sold in Germany have to list it as an additive, on their websites this usually appears as ‘mit Farbstoff’ or ‘enthält Farbstoff’ both meaning the spirit contains dye. We’ve scraped a number of German whisky websites and matched their ‘EAN’ and bottles details against the bottles we pricecheck using multiple validations to confirm*.
*Ultimately this system is far from perfect, distilleries change their output and bottles that did contain spirit caramel may change their process. It’s also not completely inconceivable that a whisky could contain caramel for one market and not in another, however unlikely this might be. So until the distilleries are prepared to have a grown up conversation, we’ll do everything in our power to keep our DB up to date. Let us know via the contact form if you find any issues.