Purity: Potter's Special Old Whiskey

[Capn Jimbo]

Would you believe it?


In general, Canadian whiskies are the spam of spirits, with up to nearly 10% of additives allowable without labeling, and including flavorings, sugar, coloring and even sherry wine! Call them a mixed drink in a bottle - and the primary reason that Canadian whiskies garner such minimal respect.

There are exceptions.

Once again I sent another of my patent pending, anonymous email inquiries in which I ask distillers point blank: "Does your spirit contain any unlabeled additives or colorings of any kind?". Such an email was sent to Potter's, and to my great surprise (most such emails are ignored for the obvious reason that the spirit DOES contain additives), I got this response...


The envelope please...

Quoting Potter's...

Potter's Special Old Whiskey: "Thank you for your kind words and appreciation of our Potter’s Special Old Whisky.

This brand does have natural caramel added to enrich the colour, as all Whisky producers do. There is nothing further added to the well-aged Whisky. I have included a recent award we received for this brand from a popular critic."

Wow! I am always impressed when I receive an email, particularly one which is forthright and clear. Good on them. BTW, you won't believe which "popular critic's award" was cited! Yup...

Wolfboy. Now I'm not so sure...

[Uisge]

They lost credibility when the reply asserted "This brand does have natural caramel added to enrich the colour, as all Whisky producers do."

See if that would pass Ralfy's BS-meter. I'm quite sure it wouldn't as he has made it well known of his disdain for E-150 (aka caramel) and similar additives, or why many Scotch producers and procurers of own label single malts are promoting non-chill filtered, non-colored versons....then again, that's Scotch whisky, not Canadian whisky.


*******
Capn's Log: Entirely right and bravo to you! Still, considering what's usually in what Canookies call rye whisky, that's not bad. A trend? Let's hope...

[Capn Jimbo]

Hmmmmm, on second thought...


U-man, in rereading your post some time ago, my left-brain kicked into high gear and parsed Potter's claim and your notation of the use of "natural caramel". You've properly noted Ralfy's aversion to "E-150" (caramel coloring).

There may be well be a difference, perhaps to Potter's discredit. Here's why...

1. E-150, more commonly known as "caramel coloring" is actually burnt caramel. It is literally blackened and burnt, and tastewise is extremely bitter and unpleasant. Fortunately, it only takes a very tiny amount to adjust the color of a spirit. Many whisky tasters claim that the amount is so tiny (say 0.01%) that it can't be detected. Ralfy and the Malt Maniacs disagree - the Maniacs once even did a blind comparison which led to their view that even this miniscule amount alters the whiskey's taste.

However...

2. Please note very carefully that Potter did NOT refer to "E-150" or to its common name "caramel coloring", but - and I'm parsing carefully here - Potter referred to "natural caramel"!

Honestly, I don't know how I missed this.

Natural caramel (which refers to carmelization of sugar) comes in many degrees of carmelization beginning at low heat.: from small to large "thread", to small to large "ball", to light to hard to extra hard "crack", to light to medium to dark "caramel" and finally to "Black Jack" (completely carbonized and useless). Only dark caramel is considered "caramel coloring" by the US/UK, and is intended solely as a harmless coloring agent.

I now suspect that Potter's use of the term "natural caramel" and not the well known terms of "caramel coloring" or "E-150" may be intentional. Use of light and medium brown (food) caramel (unlike E-150) would absolutely add sweet caramel tones. Use of food grade caramel thus serves double duty - to color AND to alter flavor.

Naturally, I have emailed Potter's to clarify their term of "natural caramel". Thoughts?

[Uisge]

Based on what you posted, I would think it is very likely that the producers of Potter's are skirting very closely to the line of deliberately adding E-150 versus having natural sugars in wood get toasted when a barrel is charred during construction and thereby interact with the distillate when the barrel is filled.

As Potter's isn't a top shelf brand (to my limited knowledge), I would suspect that coloring is added during the blending and not as a result from being in any wood, if only to keep a consistency in the color of each batch of whisky.

And it might also add a sweetness to the whisky, but what do I know? *shrug*

I certainly don't have the honed skepticism developed by being in the marketing biz, whereas you, sir, have been in the trenches, nay, deep pits of such enterprise!

[Capn Jimbo]

A clarification is in order...


Caramel comes in many different levels of carmelization, from very, very light, all the way to burnt to a crisp. At the burnt end is "Black Jack" which is simply burnt to carbon and useless. Just before Black Jack is a very dark, near black carmelization. This is E-150, and it retains a simply horrible, very bitter flavor. This grade's only use is for coloring.

E-150 is NOT what most people think of as caramel. The regulations allow E-150 to be used - legitimately - for coloring only.

Fortunately, E-150, aka "caramel coloring", is very, very potent and only a miniscule amount is needed to adjust the color of spirits. Ian Wisnewski estimates this requires only about 0.01% to work. In this tiny amount, E-150's bitterness is inconsequential.

The distillers who cheat would never add E-150 in larger amounts for two reasons: first, larger amounts would render the spirit unpalatable, and second, in those amounts would turn it inky black.

What cheating distillers do add is food grade caramels, probably what are called light or medium brown caramels. These grades are very, very sweet and, uh, brown. One can easily see why these grades may be used to cheat: you can add plenty of sweetness, and still maintain a desirable color.

For a complete discussion see "Caramel: Unplugged". Hope that helps...

[Capn Jimbo]

A Confirmation from Potters...


An update: based on the above I dropped a quick email to Potters asking for clarification of the "natural caramel" mentioned in their earlier email. Their prompt and reassuring reply was...

The natural caramel is a Class 1 caramel or E-150a.
Michael Nychyk
www.highwood-distillers.com

This is good news. Unless used to great excess, the trace amounts of E-150 used will have little or no effect on the perceived profile of the pure spirit. Good on Potters!