The inhabitants of Scotland first began distilling whisky for their own personal consumption in small pot stills and until the English government imposed taxes on whisky, nearly every household contained a still. In 1713 the English government put a high tax on barley; this led to Lowlanders blending barley with other grains to produce whisky as they only paid tax on the barley. The Highlanders kept on using barley and just didn’t pay the tax. Still, blends became the most widely consumed scotch whisky, malts being too expensive for anyone but the rich.

The large-scale production of scotch whiskies began in the early 19th century when bigger, more efficient distilleries were built.  In 1830’s the continuous still was invented by Robert Stein (then modified and patented by Aeneas Coffey).  This still was faster and cheaper than the pot still and was ideal for the mass production of whisky.

Scotch takes its unique flavour from the natural resources available for the production. There are three important ingredients barley, yeast and fresh spring water.

For whisky to be called a Scotch is must be distilled and aged for at least three years in Scotland and be no less than 40% ABV

The two biggest whiskies produced in Scotland are single malts and blends.