Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Blended Whisky
Our best price:
£269.9
Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Blended Whisky is a 70 year old blended whisky. Rated an average of 4.9 out...
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Whiskies containing Spirit Caramel (E150A)
The bottles listed below have been confirmed as containing E150A spirit caramel
Clynelish 14 Year Old
Our best price:
£44.95
Clynelish 14 Year Old is a 14 year old single malt whisky from the Clynelish whisky distillery (located in the...
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Laphroaig 10 Year Old
Our best price:
£28
Laphroaig 10 Year Old is a 10 year old single malt whisky from the Laphroaig whisky distillery (located in the...
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Jameson The Cooper’s Croze Blended Irish Whiskey
Our best price:
£
Jameson The Cooper’s Croze Blended Irish Whiskey is a blended whisky. Rated an average of 4.9 out of 5 by...
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Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Our best price:
£139.84
Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey is a single pot still whisky from the Midleton whisky distillery....
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Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood
Our best price:
£38.95
Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood is a 12 year old single malt whisky from the Balvenie whisky distillery (located in...
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Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or 12 Year Old Sauternes Finish
Our best price:
£
Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or 12 Year Old Sauternes Finish is a 12 year old single malt whisky from the Glenmorangie whisky...
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Dalmore 12 Year Old
Our best price:
£42.95
Dalmore 12 Year Old is a 12 year old single malt whisky from the Dalmore whisky distillery (located in the...
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Bowmore Springtide
Our best price:
£199.95
Bowmore Springtide is a single malt whisky from the Bowmore whisky distillery. Rated an average of 4.9 out of 5...
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Glendronach 12 Year Old Original
Our best price:
£43.45
Glendronach 12 Year Old Original is a 12 year old single malt whisky from the Glendronach whisky distillery (located in...
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Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Our best price:
£26.75
Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Scotch Whisky is a blended malt whisky. Rated an average of 3.9 out of 5 by...
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Tullibardine 228 Burgundy Finish
Our best price:
£32.5
Tullibardine 228 Burgundy Finish is a 22 year old single malt whisky from the Tullibardine whisky distillery (located in the...
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| Whisky Bottle | Rating | Reviews | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenmorangie Tusail Private Edition | 4.3 | 12 | £99.95 |
| Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition Blended Irish Whiskey | 4.8 | 627 | £20 |
| The Balvenie 40 Year Old | 5 | 2 | £3567.85 |
| Caol Ila 12 Year Old | 4.4 | 264 | £38 |
| Tokinoka White Blended Whisky Japanese Blended Whisky | 3 | 5 | £32.95 |
| The Glenturret Peated Edition | 4 | 1 | £41.99 |
| Loch Lomond 1999 Paul Lawrie Autograph Edition | 5 | 1 | £150 |
| Glen Garioch Virgin Oak | 4 | 8 | £ |
| MacNaMara Gaelic | 0 | 0 | £23.75 |
| Jameson Blended Irish Whiskey | 4 | 89 | £22.85 |
| Redbreast 12 Year Old Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey | 4.3 | 348 | £36 |
| Nikka Coffey Malt Whisky | 4.1 | 90 | £49.79 |
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’. 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.