Experience the Middle Cut with BOX Advanced: A High Coast Whisky Tasting

2026.10.05

In short: Using BOX Advanced Master Class No.2 “The Middle Cut” from Sweden’s High Coast Whisky (formerly BOX), I explain how pot-still distillation is split into heads, heart and tails, and how five bottles taken from different points of the middle cut taste strikingly different.

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The Flow of the Second Distillation in Pot Stills

In single malt production, the first distillation (wash distillation) makes a spirit of around 20–25% called low wines, and the second distillation (spirit distillation) refines its flavours.

In the second distillation, the nature of the liquid flowing out changes, so it is divided into the following three parts:

• Heads: the very light, highly volatile part that comes out first. Not suited to maturation, it is basically removed.
• Heart: the most balanced part in the middle, ideal for maturation. This is the “middle cut,” filled into casks as new make spirit.
• Tails: the later part, which becomes oily, with more off-notes and heaviness. Usually kept to be redistilled.

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What Is the Middle Cut?

The middle cut is the decision of “from where to where” within the heart to use.

Cutting earlier brings out lightness; cutting later brings out richness and oily depth.

This decision is the stage that most reflects the producer’s personality.

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BOX Distillery’s Challenge: Making the Middle Cut “Visible”

From Sweden’s BOX Distillery (now High Coast Whisky) comes a set that lets you experience these flavour changes across the middle cut: Advanced Master Class No.2, The Middle Cut.

The middle cut is divided further into five time windows (A to E), each bottled separately.

You discover that, under the same distillation conditions, the flavour can change this much just from the timing of the cut.

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The Order Is Secret: The Joy of Feeling Rather Than Knowing the Answer

The five bottles are numbered, but which part, A to E, each one corresponds to is not revealed.

The experience is designed around the joy of exploring the shifting flavours with your own palate and nose, rather than knowing the answer.

Tasting notes

PART A:
Light, with pear, green apple and fruity flavours.
Also raspberry, blackcurrant and a green, grassy note.
A peppery tingle,
with a faint smokiness that lingers.
 

PART B:
The strongest pear flavour. Crisp bread, and a slightly chemical, bubble-gum-like note.
A good balance of fruitiness and smokiness.
A long, fruity finish with an ashy smokiness.
 

PART C:
The aroma becomes a little lighter and spicier.
An iodine-like smell, like a hospital waiting room.
Blackcurrant comes first,
and the smokiness grows stronger.
 

PART D:
The medicinal notes grow stronger. Plastic and nail polish.
A flavour like smoked moss.
There is a peppery smokiness,
but the aroma is sweet, with a leathery note too.
 

PART E:
Dry, with leather and tobacco.
Notes of bean soup and moss. Cresol-like medicinal notes, bonfire-like smokiness, and a dry finish.

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Our Recommendation for Experiencing It at Little Happiness

At Little Happiness, we offer this Advanced Master Class as a tasting set of 5ml each (still available as of October 2026). (An ultra-rare item: only 30 sets were imported into Japan.)

From lightness to depth, and on to medicinal smokiness:
please explore the profound world of the middle cut with “your own senses.”

** At Little Happiness, we also have many BOX whiskies from before the name changed to High Coast!

(Both heavily peated and unpeated single malts!)

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Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

Mika Tanimoto, Bar Little Happiness