Highland Park 1996 21 Year Old The Kinship Island Whisky
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£325
Highland Park 1996 21 Year Old The Kinship Island Whisky is a 21 year old single malt whisky from the...
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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!
Kings County Barrel-Strength Bourbon American Whiskey
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Kings County Barrel-Strength Bourbon American Whiskey is a bourbon whiskey from the Kings County whisky distillery. The best price currently...
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Redbreast 1998 19 Year Old Lustau Finish LMDW Cellar
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£358.95
Redbreast 1998 19 Year Old Lustau Finish LMDW Cellar is a 19 year old single pot still whisky. The best...
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Springbank 21 Year Old /1980s
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£1500
Springbank 21 Year Old /1980s is a 21 year old single malt whisky from the Springbank whisky distillery (located in...
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Wildcatter 8 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£53.45
Wildcatter 8 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a 8 year old bourbon whiskey. The best price currently available...
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Ballechin 2005 11 Year Old Bordeaux
E150A Free
Our best price:
£
Ballechin 2005 11 Year Old Bordeaux is a 20 year old whisky (located in the Highland region). The best price...
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Cambus 15 Year Old Single Grain Scotch Whisky
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£199
Cambus 15 Year Old Single Grain Scotch Whisky is a 15 year old grain whisky from the Cambus whisky distillery....
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Craigellachie 9 Year Old – Batch 2 (That Boutique-y Whisky Company)
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£49.95
Craigellachie 9 Year Old – Batch 2 (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) is a 9 year old single malt whisky from...
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Fettercairn 1997 21 Year Old Signatory
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Fettercairn 1997 21 Year Old Signatory is a 21 year old whisky from the Fettercairn whisky distillery (located in the...
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Glen Spey 1997 21 Year Old Xtra Old Particular
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£229.55
Glen Spey 1997 21 Year Old Xtra Old Particular is a 21 year old single malt whisky from the Glen...
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Glengoyne 10 Year Old – Single Minded (Douglas Laing)
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Glengoyne 10 Year Old – Single Minded (Douglas Laing) is a 10 year old single malt whisky from the Glengoyne...
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Glenmorangie 1993 10 Year Old Mount Everest
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£550
Glenmorangie 1993 10 Year Old Mount Everest is a 19 year old single malt whisky from the Glenmorangie whisky distillery...
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| Whisky Bottle | Rating | Reviews | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| BenRiach 33 Year Old 1985 (cask 7214) – Peated, Virgin Oak Cask | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Glengoyne 25 Year Old Sherry Cask | 4.5 | 20 | £275 |
| North British 1996 20 Year Old Berry Bros & Rudd Single Whisky | 0 | 0 | £79.95 |
| Old & Rare Whisky Advent Calendar (2019 Edition) Blended Whisky | 0 | 0 | £999.95 |
| Balvenie Founder’s Reserve 10 Year Old (1L) | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Golden Horse Musashi Japanese Blended Malt Whisky | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Glen Breton 12 Year Old Ice | 2.7 | 3 | £51.79 |
| McGibbon’s Premium Reserve Blended Scotch Blended Whisky | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Arran 10 Year Old Glass Pack | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Benromach 17 Year Old Centenary Bottling | 0 | 0 | £275 |
| Ben Nevis 21 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) | 4.5 | 1 | £147.95 |
| Jura Journey | 4.1 | 102 | £24.99 |
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.