WHISKY OPEN PROFICIENCY PROGRAM — ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

WHISKY OPEN PROFICIENCY PROGRAM — ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

Build, benchmark, and certify your whisky sensory panel through four quarterly calibration rounds, GMP Flavour Standards, and full access to the FlavorActiV TVS2 platform.

The Whisky Open Proficiency Program is designed to train, enhance, and maintain your whisky sensory skills.

Annual subscription: £1,200 or £300 per round, saving 10% compared to single-round pricing.

£1,200.00 GBP

Quantity:

We ship globally – shipping costs may apply depending on your region

Minimum Order: £275

WHAT IS THE WHISKY OPEN PROFICIENCY PROGRAM?

The FlavorActiV Whisky Open Proficiency Program is a structured annual sensory calibration scheme for distilleries, blending teams, and quality control panels.

Participants receive a calibration pack each quarter, covering four rounds per year, and use FlavorActiV’s TVS2 platform to log results, track performance, and receive certification. Testing follows an IN/OUT scheme, measuring each taster’s ability to identify flavour defects outside product quality specifications.

Once tasting is complete, log your results on the Whisky Open Proficiency Program TVS2 platform. Identify strengths and areas for improvement to track progress over time. The platform is mobile-friendly and accessible worldwide. Certification is awarded to all participants who successfully complete the program.

ANNUAL PROGRAM VS SINGLE ROUND

Single Round Annual Program
Rounds per year 1 4
Cost per round £350 £300
TVS2 Access Limited Full
Certification No Yes
Proficiency Test IN/OUT IN/OUT
Subscription Pay as you go Annual

Round schedule:
– Round 1 — April
– Round 2 — July
– Round 3 — October
– Round 4 — January

WHY ENROL IN THE ANNUAL PROGRAM?

Some of the benefits of joining the Annual Whisky Open Proficiency Program are:

– Certification received for all participants in the program
– Reduce risk of undesirable product release
– Sensory feedback from across the whole organisation or distillery
– Reduced specialised sensory training costs for panellists
– Learn strengths and weaknesses to hone skills accordingly
– Encourages staff retention and attracts new talent
– Improves product awareness

Proficiency is the next step after you are trained to recognise the 14 flavours included in the scheme (available to purchase from our online store).

WHAT FLAVOURS ARE INCLUDED?

The program focuses on 14 essential Whisky Flavour Standards, covering both desirable and undesirable notes:

– Buttery (Diacetyl)
– Butyric
– Cereal / Malty
– Coconut (Whisky Lactone)
– Floral (Geraniol)
– Fruity / Estery (Isoamyl Acetate)
– Green / Grassy (Acetaldehyde)
– Musty
– Medicinal
– Smoky
– Spicy
– Vanilla
– Sulphury (Rotten Vegetable)
– Sulphury (Rubbery / Leathery)

HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS

1. Receive Your Quarterly Calibration Pack
Each round, you receive a calibration pack containing GMP-certified Flavour Standard capsules. Testing follows the IN/OUT method, assessing each taster’s ability to correctly identify which samples fall outside the product quality specification.

2. Complete the Tasting
Participants taste each sample and record their assessments. The process is straightforward and can be done at your facility on your schedule.

3. Log Your Results on TVS2
After tasting, results are entered into FlavorActiV’s TVS2 proficiency platform. The platform is mobile-friendly and accessible worldwide, suitable for multi-site distilleries and remote panellists.

4. Track Performance Over Time
TVS2 displays each taster’s results by round, making it easy to identify consistent strengths, recurring weaknesses, and measurable improvement over the year.

5. Receive Certification
Participants who successfully complete all four rounds receive certification, a recognised marker of sensory competence that supports quality audits and professional development.

START IMPROVING YOUR WHISKY SENSORY SKILLS TODAY

Join the Whisky Open Proficiency Program to build expertise, improve quality control, and gain industry-recognised certification in one comprehensive annual training system.

FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards

Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.

We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.

Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.

We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.

FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.

The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.

All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.

Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.

We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.

Industry leading packaging and shelf-life

FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.

We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…

Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.

Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.

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