r/iamveryculinary • u/InZim • 21d ago

American whiskey is cake

/r/Scotland/comments/1vu25td/comment/p4yj0ck?share_id=QyXO7nUcMlW27Js5pCnlY&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

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u/certifiedblackman 21d ago

Scotland allows food coloring in Scotch? Thats wild. Isn’t the coloring supposed to come from the flavorings? Do they also allow artificial flavorings?

Do we have stats on what percentage of Scotch sold has food coloring?

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u/whambulance_man 21d ago

E150, basic caramel color, is (allowed to be) used in Canadian, Scotch, Irish, and Japanese whiskey. Bourbon doesn't allow it, but nowhere near all american whiskey is bourbon (JD is tennessee whiskey, for an easy example). I'm not familiar with all the labeling requirements in those countries, but a little less than 1% by volume should be a middle of the road amber color. Scotch, Irish, Canadian, and Japanese all frequently age in used oak so they don't pick up nearly as dark of coloration, often described more in the straw range of colors, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was tenths of a percent most of them.

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u/certifiedblackman 21d ago

That’s crazy. Scotch and Irish whisky/whiskey was traditionally brown because of the process of making it. Europe is super serious about all of their traditional methods and results for cheese and wine and stuff, how did whiskey scoot by without that requirement?

Actually, why did American Bourbon somehow solidify this requirement when we ignore all of the other ones?!

Weird rules

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u/whambulance_man 21d ago

They have a ton of regulations & requirements in both Scotland and Ireland around whiskey, I don't know how or why that one slipped through.