ALCOHOL, one of the most sold items in the world. People have alcohol for various reasons like- to celebrate victory, to bear the pain, to get away from loneliness, to make their mood fresh, to hang out with friends, to get rid of the pains, to be in another world etc. In short people have alcohol in various ways and reasons. Like the reason for taking alcohol, there are various types of alcohols too. Be it wine, whiskey, rum, gin, brandy, beer etc. different people have different choices. But today we are concluding the difference between Scotch and Whiskey. Scotch and whiskey are from same family. That means both are whiskeys, but very different from each other. Today we are finding out the difference between scotch and whiskey.
Scotch:
Firstly, we will get you to know what is scotch? Scotch is a whiskey, which is made in Scotland, that’s the reason it is called Scotch. The whiskey is made in Scotland and also aged for three years in Scotland only is Scotch. The whiskey which is made in Scotland but it is fresh and not matured, then it is called scotch spirit. Scotch is made of malted barley and some other grains. There are five types of Scotch Whiskey that are – Single Malt Scotch, Blended Malt Scotch, Blended Scotch, Blended Grain Scotch and Single Grain Scotch. Now we learn about all five types of scotch whiskeys in detail-
Single Malt:
Single malt is the most premium whiskey. They produced by one single distillery using malted barley. There are only 10% whiskeys are Single malt whiskey.
Blended Malt:
Blended malt whiskey is the blend of malted whiskey. It can be from various distilleries.
Blended Scotch:
Blended Scotch is a combination of malt scotch and grain scotch. It can be distilled from any numbers of distilleries.
Blended Grain:
Blended grain scotch is a combination of different grains. This scotch is the blend of various grains from different distilleries.
Single Grain:
Single grain scotch is very rare because only a few people make it. Single grain scotch can be made of malted barley or any other malted grains. It may not be made with barley alone. However, it has to be made of single distillery to maintain the uniqueness of the scotch.
Whiskey:
Although there are many types of whiskeys there in the world, yet if we are comparing scotch and whiskey, then there comes Indian whiskey. India is the largest whiskey market in the world but it is not allowed to export the whiskey because it is not the same thing what other countries make. There are four types of whiskeys that are Single Malt Whiskey, Grain Whiskey, Blended Malt Whiskey and Blended Whiskey. Now we learn about all four of them in detail-
Single Malt Whiskey:
Single means single distillery, malt means malted barley and whiskey is whiskey. So, it is single distillery malted barley whiskey.
Grain Whiskey:
Different types of grains are been used in making of this whiskey. It can be combination of different grains like wheat, barley, ryes, corns etc or it can be made of one type of grain also.
Blended Malt Whiskey:
Blended malt whiskey is a combination of different kinds of single malts. The distillery which makes single malt and with that it purchased other malts from different distilleries makes the blended malt whiskey.
Blended Whiskey:
One distillery makes a kind of whiskey and also purchases many different kinds of whiskey form other distilleries. Then this blended whiskey is made. 90% whiskey which is available in market is blended whiskey.
Difference Beween Scotch and Whiskey:
- Scotch should be matured for three years, yet there are no such rules for Indian whiskey. Indian whiskey can be consumed fresh as well as aged also. There is a valid reason for this that India has a warmer climate than Scotland and also has very less humidity, so here whiskey takes lesser time to get matured and because of high humidity and cold weather scotch takes at least three years in Scotland to be matured.
- There is always a number mentioned in a bottle of scotch which is for its age. Like if there is 8 number, that means the scotch has been made 8 years back and matured by process. Whereas, there are no such numbers mention in Indian Whiskey. We cannot know about the age of Indian whiskey.
- Scotch is mostly made of malted barley, but lately rye grains and maize also used in the making of scotch. But the Indian whiskey has no such rules in making. There is no laws or criteria to make Indian Whiskey like Scottish government made for their country. In India it is not necessary to make whiskey with some grain or maze or some particular ingredient, so in making whiskey, Indian manufacture is free to use anything he wants.
- Scotch has a very unique aroma and taste which comes from peat. Most of the scotches has the smokiness of peat, which creates a very different and fantastic flavour. Indian whiskeys also have smoky aroma, but the taste is very different which cannot beat the flavour of scotch.
- The neutral spirit that is made with Molasses is called Rum all over the world, but in India, it is considered as Whiskey. Mostly Indians add at least 90 percent of fermented molasses and only 10 percent of whiskeys with added colour to make a bottle of whiskey.
At last, we come to the conclusion that there should not be any comparison between Scotch and Whiskey. Because the drink that we call Whiskey in India is actually Rum in other countries. For that, manufacturers are not in any fault, because Indian Government has never made any law for the ingredients, aging process and making process of Whiskey.
