Glamis Castle Reserve 12 Year Old /1980s
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£70.45
Glamis Castle Reserve 12 Year Old /1980s is a 12 year old blended whisky. The best price currently available is...
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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!
Glencadam 6 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Company)
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£41.95
Glencadam 6 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) is a 6 year old single malt whisky from the Glencadam whisky...
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Grant’s Elementary 6 Year Old – Carbon Blended Whisky
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£37.4
Grant’s Elementary 6 Year Old – Carbon Blended Whisky is a 6 year old blended whisky. The best price currently...
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Old Ezra Brooks 15 Year Old Bourbon Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£220
Old Ezra Brooks 15 Year Old Bourbon Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a 15 year old bourbon whiskey. The best...
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Port Askaig 2000 Single Cask /2016
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Port Askaig 2000 Single Cask /2016 is a 20 year old single malt whisky (located in the Islay region). The...
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Rock Island Blended Malt Whisky
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£37.95
Rock Island Blended Malt Whisky is a blended malt whisky. The best price currently available is from Master of Malt...
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Tamnavulin 31 Year Old 1988 (cask 10026) – Vintage Cask Collection (A.
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£246
Tamnavulin 31 Year Old 1988 (cask 10026) – Vintage Cask Collection (A. is a 31 year old single malt whisky...
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Writers Tears Double Oak Blended Whiskey
Contains E150A
Our best price:
£44.95
Writers Tears Double Oak Blended Whiskey is a blended whisky. The best price currently available is from Master of Malt...
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Ardbeg Grooves – Committee Release
E150A Free
Our best price:
£
Ardbeg Grooves – Committee Release is a single malt whisky from the Ardbeg whisky distillery. The best price currently available...
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Bells’ Christmas 1988 Decanter
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Bells’ Christmas 1988 Decanter is a 19 year old blend whisky. The best price currently available is from for only...
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Box Dalvve Swedish
E150A Free
Our best price:
£58.75
Box Dalvve Swedish is a single malt whisky. The best price currently available is from The Whisky Exchange for only...
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Caol Ila 2005 14 Year Old Hermitage Wood CC
E150A Unknown
Our best price:
£
Caol Ila 2005 14 Year Old Hermitage Wood CC is a 20 year old single malt whisky from the Caol...
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| Whisky Bottle | Rating | Reviews | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Beam Black 6 Year Old Triple Aged | 0 | 0 | £36.95 |
| White Oak Akashi Single Malt 5 Year Old | 3 | 3 | £134.95 |
| Glenmorangie Port Wood 1st Release | 0 | 0 | £600 |
| The Arran Malt (Old Bottling) | 0 | 0 | £114.95 |
| Glenrothes Whisky Maker’s Cut | 3.9 | 17 | £49.9 |
| Santis Malt Edition Dreifaltigkeit | 4.2 | 39 | £63.85 |
| Glenfiddich Classic | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Tennessee Bourbon Whisky #1 14 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Compan Bourbon Whisky | 5 | 2 | £76.95 |
| Caol Ila 6 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) | 0 | 0 | £ |
| Clan Fraser Reserve Blended Whisky | 5 | 1 | £18.95 |
| Caol Ila 40 Year Old /2019 Kinship | 0 | 0 | £1600 |
| Hyde 6 Year Old No.5 The Aras Cask Grain Whiskey | 3.2 | 5 | £39.95 |
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.