Difford's Guide

Listing your product on Difford's Guide image 1

Listing your product on Difford's Guide

We are keen to feature as many spirits, liqueurs, beers, wines, and non-alcoholic products as possible on Difford's Guide and we create a dedicated page for each additional product to carry interesting, relevant, and useful information for our readers, as well as links to online retailers and the relevant brand's website.

To help towards covering the time involved in setting up a new page with associated links, we charge a fee of UK £197 / USA $266 / Euro €284 (plus VAT) to create each dedicated product page. Updates to that page (info, packaging changes etc.) within the first 12 months of listing are free but in subsequent years we may charge 50% of the listing fee to update pages and refresh images/information.

Proceed directly to our simple to complete online Product Listing form to share information about your product and upload product images.

Each dedicated product page includes:

  • Bottle/can image in portrait format, with the facility to also display multiple product images on scroller.
  • Link to brand's own website
  • Product summary - we'll display as much salient and useful information as we can write from the information we are sent.
  • Product information - basic specifications such as alc./vol. with option to add extended information including calories, allergens and suitability for vegetarians, vegans etc. We encourage brand owners to supply as much information as possible.
  • Image link to dedicated producer page - with further information.
  • Amazon, The Whisky Exchange & other online retailers - in the UK (and other countries soon) we embed online shops so (where available) products are available to purchase directly from the Difford's Guide page. We also stock and sell selected products for UK delivery ourselves.
  • Image link to dedicated owner page - if owned by a corporation - e.g. Diageo, Heineken, Pernod Ricard etc.

Tasting notes and rating out-of-5

If we receive a tasting sample then we will also add tasting notes and our qualitative rating out-of-5. Receiving a sample is not a condition of listing and we are happy to produce a dedicated product page on Difford's Guide with the above without reviewing. Please note that we do not charge for tastings/reviews or to update tastings/reviews. Products receiving a qualitative rating of 4-out-of-5 or above will be issued a Difford's Guide Quality Stamp subject to the brand having provided sufficient product information.

What information do we require?

The following list of questions may look daunting but we only insist a few of these are answered - those marked with an '*' (asterisk).

Our easy-to-use online form is split across 9 screens as set out below.

Most answers simply require choosing which applies from a drop menu of options or simply checking boxes that apply.

Screen 1. Product Identification

Simple questions to help us identify your product. Please answer as fully as you are able.

  • Product name (new products only)
  • Product category (new products only)
  • Product image(s)
  • External URL to brand or product
  • Barcode (UPC)
  • Bottle size
  • Closure
  • Product reference code
  • Commodity code
  • Tax code
  • COLA TTB ID

Screen 2. Raw Material

All the following are simple tick box answers - simply check which apply.

  • Contains multi grain?
  • Contains wheat?
  • Contains rye?
  • Contains barley?
  • Contains corn?
  • Contains oats?
  • Contains spelt?
  • Contains orchard fruit?
  • Contains berries?
  • Contains grapes?
  • Contains honey?
  • Contains sugar cane?
  • Contains molasses?
  • Contains sugar beat?
  • Contains potato?
  • Contains whey?
  • Other

Screen 3. Composition

The following may look daunting to some but we only require alc./vol. to be stated - the rest are optional. However, we'd appreciate your answering as many as possible and our interface makes doing this easy.

  • Alcohol by volume*
  • Energy (calories in Kcal per 100ml)
  • Residual sugar (in grams per litre)
  • Methanol content declared (mg per litre)
  • Copper content declared (mg per litre)
  • Zinc content declared (mg per litre)
  • Haze/turbidity (measured using EBC, FNU/NTU or ASBC)
  • pH
  • Specific Gravity (SG - measured using Plato (°P) or Brix scales)
  • Density (temperature in °C)
  • Refractive Index (RI)
  • Total acidity (grams per litre citric)
  • Volatile acidity (grams per litre)
  • Dissolved oxygen (stated as ppm)
  • Dissolved carbon dioxide (mg per litre)
  • Filterability (state either using NTU or FI)
  • Carbonation other than by fermentation - is CO2 injected

Screen 4. Allergens

All the following are simple tick box answers - only check which apply.

  • Sulphur dioxide & sulphites S02 content declared
  • Egg content declared
  • Dairy & milk products content declared
  • Contains cereals containing gluten?
  • Contains soybeans and products thereof?
  • Contains peanuts?
  • Contains nuts?
  • Contains sesame?
  • Contains meat?
  • Contains fish?
  • Contains crustaceans and molluscs?
  • Contains celery?
  • Contains mustard?
  • Contains lupin (lupine) and products thereof?
  • Contains caffeine?
  • Contains salt substitute Potassium Chloride?
  • Contains Phenylalanine?

Screen 5. Additives

All the following are simple tick box answers - only check which apply.

  • Egg and milk fining agents content declared
  • Contains sugar (or other sweetener)?
  • Contains caramel colour E150?
  • Contains wood concentrate/extract 'boisse'?
  • Contains colours?
  • Contains gelatine?
  • Contains acids?
  • Contains preserve E211?
  • Contains antioxidants?
  • Contains flavour enhancers?

Screen 6. Beers

The following only apply if your product is a beer.

  • Please confirm preferred style description
  • Adjuncts
  • Please list malts
  • Please list hops used and when introduced
  • International Bittering Units (IBU)
  • Original Gravity (OG)
  • Colour Standard Reference Method (SRM)

Screen 7. Wood Maturation

All the following simply require choosing which of the answer options apply or check boxes - no typing is required.

  • Type of wood used for main maturation?
  • Type of vessel used for main maturation?
  • Type of wood used for additional maturation 'finishing'?
  • Total maturation period (age of youngest element in product)
  • Were chips, planks or other surface area boosting techniques used?*
  • Was any form of wood concentrate/extract 'boisse' added?*
  • Are any accelerated aging techniques employed?*

Screen 8. Produced By

We're keen to know who makes your product and where it is made. Only the name of the producer needs to be typed. We like to also hero "craft" producers where the blender, distiller or wine maker owns more than 5% of the company they work for.

  • Country of origin*
  • Name of producer*
  • Country of processing & bottling*
  • Name of processor/bottler*
  • The distiller, brewer, blender or winemaker owns more than 5% of the producer
  • Please state their name
  • Please state distiller, brewer, blender or winemaker's qualifications and experience

Screen 9. Organic, Kosher, Vegan & Fairtrade

All the following are simply tick box answers - check all that apply.

  • Australian NASAA certified Organic
  • Canadian Organic Food and Farming Certification
  • European Union EU-Eco-regulation
  • French AB - agriculture biologique
  • German Bio-label
  • German Demeter International Certification
  • Greek Bio Hellas Certification
  • Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association
  • Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS)
  • Swiss - Bio Suisse
  • UK - Organic Farmers and Growers
  • UK - Soil Association
  • USA (70% organic) 'made with'
  • USA National Organic Program (NOP)
  • USDA certified 95% organic
  • USDA certified 100% organic
  • Kosher (not for Passover)
  • Kosher for Passover
  • Certified by Badatz Igud Rabbonim (KIR)
  • Certified by OK Kosher Certification USA
  • Certified by iKosher
  • Certified by International Kosher Council
  • Certified by Fairtrade International
  • Certified by IMO
  • Certified by Eco-Social
  • Certified by Fair Trade USA
  • Suitable for Vegetarians
  • Suitable for Ovo-lacto vegetarian
  • Certified by American Vegetarian Association
  • Certified by Vegecert
  • Suitable for Vegans
  • Certified Vegan by The Vegan Awareness Foundation
  • Certified Vegan by The Vegan Society

Screen 10. Review your answers

This last screen summarises answers to all 9 screens above and allows you to amend before submitting.

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