Noob question are commercial spirit flavours worth it

[robtes]

:-B I might be preaching heresy here and invoke the wrath of the Ginger Agents.
I looked on Ebay and these professional looking sachets were £9 for ca 2L of spirit to make a fake whisky - seems a very high price to pay.
My previous experience was with a pal's brew which was aged with BBQ smoker type hickory chips - it was ok but Im not a whisky tippler so I didnt know if it was any good

So do you have to pay this much to get a credible whisky/gin/rum/brandy?

There is such a mass of entries here on pursuing the ultimate tasting flavours - its way too much for a humble noob to take in. Hope you sympathise.
I realise that its all a matter of personal taste (up to you pal)

But is there some guidance for a noob starting out? :cry:

[B-Man]

Simple answer yes.
If your trying to replicate a commercial style.
We have bought a few and narrowed it down to about 3.
Depends on the brands and flavours.
Also good to compare your oaked ones against.


I have been happy with a fair few batches of my brandy and corn whiskey so don't buy anything for them.
I haven't done much rum but my first batch on Oak is nothing special atm so we have the still spirits Dark Spiced Rum.
Once we are happy with what we are doing I'll stop the Essences.
We also buy a few of the liqueur Essences to have something on the shelf.

[Wellsy]

It depends why you are looking for. Andrew also sells some here which are not very expensive at all if you want to experiment. Personally I found the flavour of the flavourings evaporated very quickly. They had great taste but there was no linger of the flavours. The spirits on oak tend to have a much longer taste profile but you will struggle to get an exact reproduction of a commercial drink.

Just gets down to what you are looking for