Head to head · unusually close flavour match
Compass Box Artist Blend vs Kavalan Classic Single Malt
No flavour axis separates these two, so the choice is price and occasion.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Compass Box Artist Blend | Kavalan Classic Single Malt | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Blended scotch | Single malt |
| Origin | Scotland | Taiwan |
| Age | No age statement | No age statement |
| Strength | 43% ABV | 40% ABV |
| Cask | First-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast French oak, re-vatted Palo Cortado sherry-seasoned butt | American oak |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £37 | £60 |
| Per 10cl | £5.29 | £8.57 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £123 | £214 |
| Chill-filtered | No | Not stated |
What separates them
Different countries: Compass Box Artist Blend from Scotland, Kavalan Classic Single Malt from Taiwan.
Compass Box Artist Blend is a blended scotch, Kavalan Classic Single Malt a single malt.
Neither carries an age statement, so neither discloses its youngest spirit.
Cask as each producer describes it: Compass Box Artist Blend in first-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast french oak and re-vatted palo cortado sherry-seasoned butt, Kavalan Classic Single Malt in american oak.
Chill filtration: Compass Box Artist Blend is not, Kavalan Classic Single Malt does not say.
Colour: Compass Box Artist Blend natural colour, Kavalan Classic Single Malt silent.
Kavalan Classic Single Malt: specifications not yet producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
Kavalan Classic Single Malt is £23 dearer a bottle than Compass Box Artist Blend.
Strength keeps that ordering: £123 a litre of pure alcohol for Compass Box Artist Blend against £214.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Compass Box Artist Blend is 10th cheapest and Kavalan Classic Single Malt 28th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Compass Box Artist Blend | Kavalan Classic Single Malt |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 2 | 0 |
| Sweet | 6 | 7 |
| Fruity | 7 | 8 |
| Spicy | 5 | 4 |
| Woody | 5 | 5 |
| Sherried | 4 | 3 |
| Cereal | 6 | 4 |
| Oily | 6 | 6 |
No axis reaches the 3-point gap we call meaningful. Widest is peaty, 2 against 0.
Identical on woody and oily.
Each bottle in its own right
Compass Box Artist Blend
Bright orchard fruit and cream with a dry, spiced finish. Proof that a blend can be interesting.
Compass Box publishes the complete recipe by percentage, which no large blender does: 45% Cameronbridge grain, 22% Linkwood, 10% Clynelish, 10% Balmenach, 8% a Highland malt blend in custom French oak, 5% Linkwood in a Palo Cortado butt. Component ages are the one thing conspicuously absent. Formerly sold as Great King Street Artist's Blend.
Full record →Kavalan Classic Single Malt
Mango and coconut — subtropical maturation doing something Scotland cannot.
Matures in Yilan's heat, losing far more to evaporation each year than a Scottish warehouse.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Compass Box Artist Blend for value at 43%, transparency and first blended scotch, Kavalan Classic Single Malt for something different and fruit-forward drinkers.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Compass Box Artist Blend and Kavalan Classic Single Malt: compassboxwhisky.com, cdn.shopify.com, kavalanwhisky.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.