We hear it all the time: "I'd love to try this, but I don't really know whisky." Good news — it's better if you don't. When you don't know about single malt distilleries, the different regions, or what "non-chill-filtered" means. You're more attuned to what you like the taste of. This is why we love blind tastings (and why we introduced our black bottle option).

If you can describe a flavour, you can blend a whisky

That's genuinely it. Our casks come with tasting notes, not jargon — "campfire treats with a marshmallow finish," "a taste of the sea," "the sweetie jar." If one of those sounds nice to you, you're already most of the way there. There's no test, no wrong answer, and nobody's going to ask you to justify your choices.

Which makes it a genuinely brilliant gift

This is where it gets fun for gift-buyers. Think about the person who's impossible to shop for — they've got everything, or they're fussy, or you've bought them three candles in a row and you're out of ideas. A whisky with their name on the label, blended to flavours they'd actually enjoy (or flavours that are just a good in-joke), is hard to beat. You don't need to know their whisky preferences either — "they like sweet things" or "they're always cold, give them something warming and smoky" is plenty to go on.

It works for the whisky-lover who's tried everything, and just as well for someone who's never really got on with whisky but might enjoy one built around flavours they already love — chocolate, citrus, toffee, that sort of thing.

And because you design the label yourself, it doesn't read as a generic gift. A daft pun, an in-joke, a nickname, a "World's Best [whatever]" — whatever feels like them. Add a gift voucher to the mix if you'd rather let them build their own.

What people actually make

Once people stop worrying about "doing it right," the results get properly fun. We've seen blends named after pets, after family nicknames, after running jokes that only make sense to about three people. Labels with terrible puns. Birthday blends, retirement blends, "thanks for being you" blends. Smoky, peaty creations for the person who "doesn't do sweet things," and dessert-in-a-glass blends for people who'd never normally pick up a whisky at all.

None of it needs to be clever. The best ones usually aren't trying to be — they're just personal. That's the whole point: it's not about making a "correct" whisky, it's about making one that means something to whoever's drinking it.

So, go on

If you've been putting it off because you "don't know enough" — that was never a requirement. Pick some flavours that sound good, give it a name that makes you smile, and you're done. Head to the Lab and have a go — or grab a gift voucher and let someone else have the fun.