To Enhance Flavor, Just Add Water - NYTimes.com
Why would you want to water down a perfectly good cocktail? To liberate the aroma molecules, says this guy.
If you like the taste of whiskey and gin but don’t care for the burn, this story may change the way you drink.
“
Fans and judges of Scotch whiskies often sample their flavor by ‘nosing’ them, or sniffing the aroma that gathers in the glass. Nosers have long known that diluting the spirit with roughly the same amount of water reduces the alcohol burn. And at the same time, strangely, amplifies the aromas. How can water reduce one sensation and amplify another? Both alcohol and aroma molecules are volatile, meaning they evaporate from foods and drinks and are carried by the air to the odor receptors high up in the nasal cavity. Aroma molecules are also more chemically similar to alcohol molecules than they are to water, so they tend to cling to alcohol, and are quicker to evaporate out of a drink when there’s less alcohol to cling to. This means that the more alcoholic a drink is, the more it cloisters its aroma molecules, and the less aroma it releases into the air. Add water and there’s less alcohol to irritate and burn, and more aroma release.
”
38 notes