Serious whiskey drinkers don’t really pay much attention to flavored whiskey.  I’ve had a few “chocolate” whiskeys before, for example, and my assessment is that they are best suited for cocktails (if used sparingly)—or, better yet, for people who don’t normally drink brown spirits. 

But whisk(e)y that takes on chocolate-like characteristics through a grain-toasting process is another thing entirely. Common in the beer world, particularly in stouts and porters, chocolate malts are rare in the whiskey realm. And that’s a shame, because some of my favorite bottles (which tend to be limited releases) utilize these specially roasted grains to create sumptuous, slightly sweet, and rather unique or amplified flavors. And while it’s certainly present, chocolate isn’t always the dominant note.

What is Chocolate Malt?

“Chocolate malted barley is simply barley that has been sprouted and kiln-dried to increase the available enzymes in that grain,” said Bryan Smith, master distiller at Indiana’s Hard Truth Distilling Co. “In the case of chocolate malted barley, once the kiln-drying process starts, we continue to add heat over a longer period of time, very similar to the roasting of coffee beans from blonde roast to dark roast. This process imparts deep, rich, and sometimes bitter notes like Dutch cocoa, brownie batter, and espresso.” 

“[Head of distilling & whisky creation] Dr. Bill Lumsden was actually inspired to begin experimenting with roasted barley through his love of coffee,” explained Dan Crowell, the U.S. ambassador for Glenmorangie, which releases a phenomenal limited-edition Signet expression once per year that includes high roast chocolate barley malt. “For Signet, he wanted to create a whisky that delivers on the promise of the tantalizing aromatics of freshly brewed coffee, particularly Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee beans.”

To state the obvious, there’s no actual chocolate involved here. To achieve Signet's desired flavor profile, the process is fairly straightforward. After malting, the barley enters a large rotating drum and is tumble roasted at temperatures up to 425 degrees. Every step is closely monitored and regulated to prevent scorching. The resulting “chocolate malt” is technically a reference to the barley's color after roasting; it also refers to the point where the roasted grain begins to take on cocoa and other flavors. 

What Whiskeys Are Made Using Chocolate Malt?

Chocolate malts aren’t limited to one grain. Raceking Bourbon from Kentucky’s Rabbit Hole utilizes a combination of chocolate malted wheat and chocolate malted barley. This is the distillery’s best release by far—besides the cocoa, coffee, and caramel notes, you’ll find hints of tobacco, cinnamon, and hazelnut. Hard Truth recently released its 2026 Master Distiller's Reserve, a limited-edition expression called Dark Roast Rye that features both a chocolate malt rye and caramel malt rye (like chocolate, the “caramel” mentioned here is a high-temperature roasting technique to obtain a flavor profile). Woodford Reserve offered a confusingly named Master’s Collection Chocolate Malted Rye back in 2019, which was actually a bourbon with 15% chocolate malted rye. The easiest of these chocolate malted grain expressions to find comes from Seattle’s Westland Distillery. Their Flagship release offers a five-malt mashbill that includes a pale chocolate malt.

So why are most of these releases limited editions? Distillers suggest that chocolate malt is a hard grain to work with. Crowell calls roasted barley “brittle” and less consistent than the typical malted grains. “Including roasted barley in a mashbill drops the resulting alcohol yield per ton of barley proportionally to the percentage of roasted barley added,” he said. “This drives production costs and processing challenges up appreciably.” 

That said, not everyone finds the grain difficult. “Utilizing chocolate malted barley in the whiskey-making process is pretty straightforward,” said Smith. “The most unique part for me is when folks get to see the fermenting mash on tours at our distillery. In the case of the chocolate malted rye, it looks, smells, and tastes like a marriage between Cocoa Puffs cereal and oatmeal. Super unique!”