Spice Tree 1.0

John Glaser is a legend! Full stop. You know him, he's the dude that makes those triple-tasty Compass Box Whiskys! Anyway, in 2005 he blended some malts together, put them in a barrel, and added more wood to it to increase surface area -thus increasing flavour - and gave birth to Spice Tree. A year or so later, the Scotch Whisky Foundation (SWA) told him it was illegal to sell it as 'scotch' because of the addition wood - regardless of how good it tasted - old pricks. The inaugural batch was marked, and bottled. All 4150 of them. I was lucky enough to own bottle 4150 of 4150, of that inaugural batch. The last drops! Since then John has released a new Spice Tree than conforms with regulations but for me, the first 'forbidden' Spice Tree will always be king.

Not many places still sell the first Spice Tree. I know I bought a few bottles for Milk & Honey when it became illegal so they might be your best bet for some of this fine, albeit nearly extinct hooch.

If you see it, I highly recommend you do what I did last night and drinktheshitoutofit. It's the boozy equivalent to eating Panda nuggets.