The Master of Malt Blogger's Blend > Part 3

Master of Malt, the innovative online whisky and spirits retailer, have now created each of the 10 whisky blend recipes that they received from their selected bloggers and have packaged them up in a set (pictured, left). This set, which has been named The Blogger's Blend, contains one 3cl sample of each blend and each sample is numbered 1-10. There is also a booklet that explains about each of the participating blogs. This special set is now available from www.masterofmalt.com and more information can been found on the Master of Malt blog. The Blogger's Blend costs £29.95 plus postage. To read our previous posts about The Blogger's Blend - click here.

We have enjoyed taking part to date and are proud of the blend that we have produced. However, the process doesn't purely revolove around sales ... within the set is also a voting form. Anyone that buys The Blogger's Blend set gets the chance to choose the winning blend from the 10 on offer. You simply pick your favourite, mark the corresponding number (1-10) on the form and send it back to Master of Malt or do the same on the voting page on their website! To remove any possible bias towards one blog or another, Master of Malt have not revealed which blog's whisky relates to which numbered sample. Voting closes soon, so if you haven't done so already - buy a set and get voting!!

Last night, we sat down with the 10 whiskies and worked our way through them - below are our tasting notes for each. We spent most of the time trying to guess which one was ours and who of our whisky friends made each of the other nine! As part of the voting, customers are asked to consider 'value for money, not just flavour', so we have included the predicted retail prices of a 70cl bottle of each blend.

Blend A > £47.95 a bottle
This has an initial sweet and quite sugary nose, with aromas of ripe banana, citrus peel and a whiff of distant peat smoke. The palate is soft and creamy with initial vanilla and sugary caramel notes. It becomes increasingly grainy and this carries through to a decently long finish, which also has the whiff of smokiness.

Blend B > £35.95
The nose is rich and sweet with a combination of cereal and toasted marshmallow aromas. This is initially very sugary and sweet on the palate with plenty of honey, toffee, tropical and dark dried fruit notes. The finish is much drier and slightly tannic with plenty of oak and wood spice character, which gives balance to the sweetness.

Blend C > £67.95
The most expensive blend by far offers a fresh, vibrant nose that is packed with subtle aromas - honey, gentle oak and wood spices, heather and ashy smokiness. On the palate, this whisky is much bolder than the nose suggests with a nice level of sweet notes combining with the woody, spicy, ashy ones. A long, delicate and well balanced finish.

Blend D > £39.95
A lovely and gentle nose with plenty of sweet caramel and toffee aromas, followed by dried fruit and a hint of distant smokiness. This is tangy on the palate and quite spirity although some delicious grassy, cereal notes come through, as does that hint of smoke. Very short finish. This smells great but the palate and finish are disappointing. Benefits from a drop of water.

Blend E > £42.95
This blend exhibits the biggest sherry cask influence of the set - the nose is packed with big caramel, dark dried fruit and distinct nutty (almond?) aromas, which makes you think of Christmas cake. The palate is rich yet soft with a lovely sweetness tempered by cereal grain and wood spice notes (especially cinnamon). A long, rich finish with a nice dryness adding balance.

Blend F > £36.95
A sweet, quite sugary nose that combines toffee, honey and green fruit (especially apple) aromas - this reminded us of toffee apples. On the palate, this is soft and gentle - initially very sweet with heavy cereals and a grassy note coming through later. This graininess increases and carries on it to the decently long finish.

Blend G > £39.95
A lovely fresh and vibrant nose which has plenty of fresh green fruit, cereal and dried grass aromas. The palate is soft and feels creamy with a pleasant combination of cereal grains, vanilla, dried grass/hay and a sugary toffee-like note right at the end. The finish is slightly short and sharp but has a pleasant woody, spicy warmth.

Blend H > £52.45
The nose has a good combination of aromas - vanilla, toffee, bittersweet cereals and hints of sultana and soft ashy smoke. The palate is creamy with plenty of notes vying for attention. These include barley grains, toffee, vanilla, baking spices (think of cinnamon and nutmeg) and a hint of background smoke. The finish has good balance and softness, being of decent length.

Blend I > £54.95
This is the smokiest of the bunch and hits you with a blast of surgical spirit and ashy, tar-like aromas. Underneath is a lovely light and delicate sweetness that hints at honey, icing sugar and cereals. On the palate, this is a mix of spicy, ashy smoke and earthy peat with the sweetness again coming through with time. A long, lingering and peppery finish. Delicious.

Blend J > £39.95
The darkest in colour of the whiskies, this has plenty of richness in the form of dried fruit, orange zest and caramel aromas on the nose. The palate is a little thinner than expected and not as rich as the nose but with a lovely combination of orange oil, chocolate, oak spice and dried fruit notes. The finish is very pleasant with more of the orange oil and wood spice.

We have now cast our votes and will await the results. It has to be said that many of the blends have numerous similar characteristics but each is subtly different. However, three or four blends really stand out. We will continue to report on the further stages of the process, which includes the selection of the winning blend plus the naming of the whisky and the designing of the label. If you buy The Blogger's Blend set, then let us know what you think and hope that you enjoy the 10 whiskies!

The Master of Malt Blending Challenge > Part 2

Recently, we were delighted to be asked to contribute to an exciting project by Master of Malt, the innovative independent bottling and online whisky retailing company. The project was to create a new blended whisky for the Master of Malt portfolio and they invited 10 whisky blogs, including us, from around the world to take part. Each blog was sent an identical pack containing numerous whisky samples of differing ages and styles, plus various shapes and size of measuring equipment.

Our brief was to create our own blend from what was provided and send back the recipe to Master of Malt. This was done with much fun, experimentation and stress along the way. To read our perspective and findings on this first part of the process, click here.

Well, now the second part of the process is upon us. Master of Malt have now created each of the 10 whisky blend recipes that they received from the bloggers and have packaged them up in a set (pictured, above). This set, which has been named The Blogger's Blend, contains one 3cl sample of each blend and each sample is numbered 1-10. There is also a booklet that explains about each of the participating blogs. This special set is now available from www.masterofmalt.com and more information can been found on the Master of Malt blog. The Blogger's Blend costs £29.95 plus postage.

Naturally, we would love for this to be a success and have enjoyed taking part to date. We are proud of the blend that we have produced. However, the process doesn't end here ... within the set is also a voting form. Anyone that buys The Blogger's Blend set gets the chance to choose the winning blend from the 10 on offer. You simply pick your favourite, mark the corresponding number (1-10) on the form and send it back to Master of Malt! To remove any possible bias towards one blog or another, Master of Malt have not revealed which blog's whisky relates to which numbered sample.

We plan to review each blend in the set shortly and will continue to report on the further stages of the process, which includes the selection of the winning blend plus the naming of the whisky and the designing of the label. If you buy The Blogger's Blend set, then let us know what you think and hope that you enjoy the 10 whiskies!

The Master of Malt Blending Challenge

A couple of weeks ago, we received a package from Master of Malt, the online whisky retailer. This followed on from an exciting email that we received from them, which invited us to take part in something very special. We were being asked to create our own blended whisky using the ingredients contained within the package. We were excited about the prospect and honoured to be asked to take part. However once our euphoria started to wear off, one problem was staring us in the face - what did we know about how to blend whisky? Hmmm, not much actually ...

Master of Malt have been retailing for 25 years. The business is based in Tunbridge Wells in Kent and started life as a whisky shop, before expanding on to the internet. The company's website is now one of the UK's leading online sites for whisky, and also includes other spirits such as Cognac, gin, rum, tequila and vodka. The site is built around a vast core range of whisky and also contains plenty of other whisky related facts, information and tips. They are industry innovators and this is shown by their Drinks by the Dram range, which allows you to purchase 3cl samples of most of their whisky catalogue to try before you buy the full bottle.

So, here is the idea ... Master of Malt have asked ten whisky blogs/publications to produce their own version of a blended whisky - the participants are listed below with links to their sites - from the same set of core ingredients (these are again listed below with some basic tasting notes). We then return our recipes to them and they will make all ten, which they will then sell in a special Drinks by the Dram ten pack. Anyone buying the pack will get a 3cl sample bottle of each blend and be asked to vote for their favourite. When all of the votes are in, Master of Malt will then produce, market and retail the winning blend. The same ten participants will then also come up with a name for the blend and the label design.

The other nine participants > Cask Strength, Connosr, Dr Whisky, Edinburgh Whisky, Glasgow's Whisky (& Ale), Guid Scotch Drink, Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society, WhiskyCast and Whisky Magazine.

The blending pack that we received included a few scientific-looking bits of equipment (glass measuring beakers, pipettes etc) plus the selection of whiskies listed below. We decided to sample each of the whiskies individually before doing anything else and we have included our basic tasting notes next to them. The identities and ages of the whiskies were not revealed to us, so as to avoid any prejudice or preconception of what we were using. We could use some or all of them and in any combination.

The whiskies included were >
A grain base > perfumed and fragrant, almond, vanilla, bittersweet, fresh, gristy cereals, sultana.
A malt base > caramel, sultana, toasted nuts, hint of dried grass, obviously sweet and buttery.
A Lowland malt > very delicate, coconut, honey, fresh pears, white chocolate, vanilla, fresh oak, dried grasses.
A Highland malt > malty cereal grains, bitter almond, orange oil, honey, chocolate, coffee, wood spices - especially cinnamon.
A sherried Speyside malt > caramel, dried fruits, grains, brown sugar, orange peel, nuts, wood spice, Christmas cake, prunes.
An Islay malt > burnt rubber, damp earth, moss, burnt cereals, vanilla, oatcakes, bonfire smoke, chilli, salt.
An old Speyside malt > woody, cereals, oatcakes, grassy, raisins, sultana, butterscotch, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg.
An old sherry finished Highland malt > burnt sugar, cedarwood, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, biscuity, heavy cereals, espresso, milk chocolate.
A very, very old grain whisky > heavy cereals, white chocolate, fresh coconut, wood spices - oak, cinnamon, vanilla, icing sugar, bitter finish.
A very old Islay malt > floral, malty cereals, ashy smoke in background, biscuits, salty brine, rich in mouth.

Once we had sampled each of the component parts, we set about trying to match things together that would compliment each other in the final blend - this was not as easy as you would think. We quickly discovered that two or three whiskies that we thought would go well together, actually didn't work as well as expected when mixed. This led to a long yet enjoyable session of trying different combinations and amounts of the component whiskies, until we had something that was starting to resemble what we wanted for our final blend.

However, this needed refining and the breakthrough came when we met Sandy Hyslop on our recent trip to Scotland. Sandy is the Master Blender for the hugely popular Ballantine's blended whisky range and he told us a few of the basic things to consider when constructing a blended whisky. Thanks to his tips and another long but enjoyable blending session, we finally had a whisky that we are proud to put our name to. The 'Karen & Matt Blend' describes our whisky taste and preference at this particular point of time. The recipe has now been sent back to Master of Malt and we are eagerly awaiting the next part of the process where ours and the other nine are recreated. What will the others taste like? We will let you know ...