What Is a Teaspooned Whisky?

What is Teaspooned Whisky?

A Teaspooned whisky is a blended malt whisky created by a distillery by adding a small amount of whisky (a teaspoonful – hence the name) from a different distillery to a cask of their own single malt.

After the teaspoonful has been added to the cask, it can no longer be sold as a "single malt" from that distillery, so is reclassified and labelled as a "blended malt” and sold under a different brand name. Despite the whisky often being identical in almost every way to the original, as, theoretically speaking, a teaspoonful equates to approximately 0.002% of a 250L cask!

This quirky process is commonplace within the industry - it has historically allowed distilleries to sell whisky casks to “independent bottlers” without losing control of their brand or allowing another brands or business to benefit from their reputation. 

Some well-known brand names which are examples of teaspooned whisky: 

• Burnside (Originally a single malt from Balvenie with a teaspoon of Glenfiddich)
• Wardhead (Originally a single malt from Glenfiddich with a teaspoon of Balvenie)
• Westport (Originally a Glenmorangie whisky with a teaspoon of Glen Moray added)