How Can Whisky Be Flavoured And What Is OC Blue?
One of the alcoholic beverages is whisky and it is a regulated spirit worldwide. It comes in different classes and types. Though the process followed to produce the various types of whisky are the same. The different processes are fermentation, distillation and ageing.
Whisky is produced using fermented grain mash. Usually for distillation column stills are used.
Whisky is aged in wooden casks that are made up of charred white oak. Sometimes the charred white oak casks used for ageing sherry are also used. The ‘Age’ of whisky is the time between the distillation and the bottling process where it is stored in casks.
The various types of whisky use a different base product, alcoholic content and quality. The different types of whisky are the malt whisk and the grain whisky. Malta and grain can be combined in various ways to produce whisky like single malt, blended malt, blended, single cask and cask strength.
Whisky is sold at an alcoholic strength of 40% abv which is the minimum requirement in some countries. Though the cask strength whisky can have more alcoholic strength, usually twice the amount of alcohol.
Flavouring whisky
Whisky contains many flavouring compounds and it can be flavoured as follows:
- A distinct smoky flavour can be given to the whisky by using peat smoke to treat the malt.
- The flavour of whisky can be got partially from the distillation process. It can be determined by the presence of fusel oils and congeners. Fusel oils have a strong smell and taste and are slightly toxic. Various methods are used to remove unwanted fusel oils.
- In distilled beverages, the acetals form rapidly and the highest levels of acetals are found in malt whisky. In Sherry, the acetals contribute to the fruitiness of the aroma.
- In almost all distilled beverages there is diketone diacetyl which has a buttery aroma. Whisky contains this in good quantity.
- The roasted flavour in whisky comes from the polysulfides and thiophenes produced during the distillation process.
- When whisky is stored in the oak barrels it absorbs the substances from the wooden barrel. One of the substances is Whisky lactone or Quercus lactone which gives a strong coconut aroma.
- Additional flavouring and colouring compounds can be added to whisky. Some whisky contains caramel flavouring, caramel colouring and more.
Officer’s Choice whisky
The Officer’s Choice or OC blue is an Indian whisky and is one of the largest-selling spirits in the world. This whisky is typically made for grain. It is a fine blend of Scotch malts and Indian grain spirits. It has a subtle fruity, leafy, peaty and woody aroma.
It offers a black variant that is produced using Indian grain spirits and rare Scotch malts and aged in charred oak barrels.
