Scotland, Japan, Canada and India spell it whisky. Ireland and the United States spell it whiskey. The extra ‘e’ traces back to 19th-century Irish distillers distinguishing their product from what they considered inferior Scotch — American distillers, many of them Irish immigrants, kept the spelling.

Does the spelling tell you anything about the whisky itself

Not directly — it tells you where it’s from, and where-it’s-from comes with its own rules: Scotch must age at least three years in oak, bourbon must be at least 51% corn, Irish whiskey is triple-distilled by convention rather than law. The spelling is a shortcut to the rulebook, not a taste descriptor on its own.

India, technically a ‘whisky’ country by spelling, has historically allowed molasses-based spirit to carry the name — which is why an Indian single malt made entirely from malted barley, like the ones reviewed on this site, is worth calling out specifically rather than assumed from the category.