Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
There was quite a stir this week when the Thompson Brothers released their new Mystery Malt; a dark glass bottle with a huge question mark and a QR code on the bottle. All you know at point of purchase is that it's single malt scotch, 48.5% ABV and bottled by the Thompson Brothers. That's it.
It could be any one of sixteen possible bottles ranging from young new wave distilleries to well-aged and respected single malts. They published exactly how many of each they’d bottled and it’s down to pure luck what you discover upon cracking the foil seal on the capsule.
This concept excited me greatly. There are lots of positives to this whisky gamble - which we’ll cover - but I wanted to elevate the fun of one particular angle: the blind challenge of it all.
Anyone that’s been around the channel for long enough will know how much I’m obsessed with tasting things blind. Mostly because I’m appalled at my own inability to master the selection of traits and styles, but because when we’re stripped of preconceptions everything is evaluated through a different lens. I find it fascinating.
It has been aeons since we enjoyed a blind challenge on the vPub so, with many different ways to view and benefit from tasting blind; here’s how we’ll go about this one.
Firstly, I invite three of the finest whisky palates on the planet to join me. By the finest, I mean the most available, and by planet, I mean Glasgow’s Whisky Club. We’ll be joined by Roddy, Stefan and Ian, all of whom have appeared for various fun and gamification ideas on the vPub in the past.
They’ll be presented with a bottle of the Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt and - along with me - we’ll open them together and - before we reveal what’s in our bottles - we’ll try to decipher what we have using the published list of possibilities. We can discuss our thoughts on the concept and share whether we’d be up for buying more.
Thereafter - being very mindful that this first outturn of the Mystery Malt is UK only - we’ll make our own mini-Mysterious Malt challenge. I’ll have pre-selected and delivered some drams from my own mystery list, and we’ll see how the panel can identify value, preferences, age and profile - all in the name of encouraging anyone and everyone to gamify the whiskies they already think they know - on hand.
The whiskies I’ve picked will be familiar to you all from recent sessions, with maybe one or two newbies tossed in for good measure. These things always throw up surprises and I always look forward to them.
I really hope to welcome you there!
Timestamps:
0:00 - Opening
2:15 - Brief intro to topic
5:29 - Welcoming in the Lounge
13:47 - Introducing the TB Mystery Malt
27:42 - Bringing in guests
34:10 - Uncorking - blind
1:07:44 - Trying to semi-blind match what we have
1:12:46 - The reveal - Peak Peat Blight 😰!
1:29:05 - A home made mysterious malt set up
2:0042 - The home made reveal. Incredible job by the panel 😳!
2:33:02 - Quiz at the End
The inspiration for the TB Mystery Malt was Tom Cullen in 2022 - this is his site: construct.net/en
There was quite a stir this week when the Thompson Brothers released their new Mystery Malt; a dark glass bottle with a huge question mark and a QR code on the bottle. All you know at point of purchase is that it's single malt scotch, 48.5% ABV and bottled by the Thompson Brothers. That's it.
It could be any one of sixteen possible bottles ranging from young new wave distilleries to well-aged and respected single malts. They published exactly how many of each they’d bottled and it’s down to pure luck what you discover upon cracking the foil seal on the capsule.
This concept excited me greatly. There are lots of positives to this whisky gamble - which we’ll cover - but I wanted to elevate the fun of one particular angle: the blind challenge of it all.
Anyone that’s been around the channel for long enough will know how much I’m obsessed with tasting things blind. Mostly because I’m appalled at my own inability to master the selection of traits and styles, but because when we’re stripped of preconceptions everything is evaluated through a different lens. I find it fascinating.
It has been aeons since we enjoyed a blind challenge on the vPub so, with many different ways to view and benefit from tasting blind; here’s how we’ll go about this one.
Firstly, I invite three of the finest whisky palates on the planet to join me. By the finest, I mean the most available, and by planet, I mean Glasgow’s Whisky Club. We’ll be joined by Roddy, Stefan and Ian, all of whom have appeared for various fun and gamification ideas on the vPub in the past.
They’ll be presented with a bottle of the Thompson Brothers Mystery Malt and - along with me - we’ll open them together and - before we reveal what’s in our bottles - we’ll try to decipher what we have using the published list of possibilities. We can discuss our thoughts on the concept and share whether we’d be up for buying more.
Thereafter - being very mindful that this first outturn of the Mystery Malt is UK only - we’ll make our own mini-Mysterious Malt challenge. I’ll have pre-selected and delivered some drams from my own mystery list, and we’ll see how the panel can identify value, preferences, age and profile - all in the name of encouraging anyone and everyone to gamify the whiskies they already think they know - on hand.
The whiskies I’ve picked will be familiar to you all from recent sessions, with maybe one or two newbies tossed in for good measure. These things always throw up surprises and I always look forward to them.
I really hope to welcome you there!
Timestamps:
0:00 - Opening
2:15 - Brief intro to topic
5:29 - Welcoming in the Lounge
13:47 - Introducing the TB Mystery Malt
27:42 - Bringing in guests
34:10 - Uncorking - blind
1:07:44 - Trying to semi-blind match what we have
1:12:46 - The reveal - Peak Peat Blight 😰!
1:29:05 - A home made mysterious malt set up
2:0042 - The home made reveal. Incredible job by the panel 😳!
2:33:02 - Quiz at the End
The inspiration for the TB Mystery Malt was Tom Cullen in 2022 - this is his site: construct.net/en
