Scottish whisky bottler the Single Cask has offered a solution to the age-old challenge of categorising whisky flavours in a company rebrand.

The bottler will now be using five mood profiles to categorise each of the 3,000 casks in its Glenrothes warehouse, so drinkers can select a whisky based on what kind they are ‘in the mood’ for.

The moods — Cheerful, Playful, Bold, Curious, and Easy-going — aim to give an idea of a whisky's character, with typical aromas and flavours attached to each profile.

To celebrate this rebrand, the Fife-based company has announced a fresh collection of whiskies. They include limited-edition bottlings from Bunnahabhain, Glen Spey, and a Fèis Ìle cask from Bruichladdich to celebrate the festival at the end of May.

The Single Cask's brand marketing manager Helen Stewart and whisky sensory expert Kami Newton developed the five mood classifications, with the aim of simplifying the processes of describing and choosing a whisky. For example, whiskies within the Cheerful category are “dependable crowd-pleasers”, the Bold category is for powerful whiskies with “assertive, rich, deep” characters, and the Curious whiskies are those which display “surprising or uncommon” flavours.

Stewart said: “We feel this brand-new way to explore our single cask whiskies will open whisky lover’s eyes to a new world of experiences. We want to be the brand who helps people to easily discover their perfect dram, and enjoy that ultimate, unique single cask whisky experience.” 

“At the Single Cask, we believe the overall ‘charisma’ of a dram is more important than its individual flavours, and when we picture whiskies as personalities, they become easy to relate to. We can instantly identify with the mood of the whisky. That ability to move and connect people, to make us feel alive in ways unimaginable and open our minds to new experiences.”  

Newton explains: “One of the biggest challenges with flavour is that it’s a different experience from one person to the next. For example, to some people coriander tastes like a delicious, fragrant herb. But others have a genetic variation that makes coriander taste like disgusting soap. Add to this flavours that are culturally specific and the challenge of pigeonholing whisky by flavour becomes clear. The five mood method takes a whole new approach that is less confusing and creates an emotional connection with whisky drinkers.”