Smelling Your Drinks
I was a terrible eater when I was younger. One of the more common advice to give children with my bad habit is …hold your nose. This still did not work. But why does eliminating smell affect taste?
First let’s define some terms: Taste is the sensation of the mouth and throat. Flavour is the category of many tastes. The expression tastes the rainbow comes to mind. The rainbow is the many flavors of fruity pebbles.
Tasting a vegetable is relying on the oral factories to activate the brain. Without it our brain has fewer memories of it, thus giving the child in this case, a new experience. Quote:
The odor is generally thought to play an important role in the perception and evaluation of a food’s flavor -https://academic.oup.com/chemse/article/35/8/735/334493
I was recently doing some traveling and happened to stop in at a local bar. I sat on the corner barstool, and I was able to watch the whole restaurant, unfold its story. From celebrations to business meetings, to dis-interested friends, it was a classic bar scene.
As I sat there, my eyes watched one of the bartenders, a 30-year-old woman who in conversation still feels like a kid sometimes, making drinks.
Drink after drink she would spray something on top of the drink. Piquing my curiosity, I asked what she was doing, and what that silver tube was. She said it was an “atomizer”.
“what’s an atomizer,” I said.
She gave an answer that didn’t satisfy me.
After returning home, this idea, and that little metal tube has had me wondering ever since. And I have become a little obsessed with how bartenders, and drink makers, mix and create cocktails, that taste good.
Tasting good means all senses have to be activated, so no more holding your nose, you have to jump right in!
Quote
“the congruency between the odor-taste (s) pairing that is key. Specifically, the more congruent a particular combination of olfactory and gustatory stimuli, the more likely the component unisensory stimuli will be bound together as a flavor object (or Gestalt) and, as a result, localized together to the oral cavity. “
— https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329316300180
This chemistry of putting flavors together is not anything new, in fact, we know them. It can be the pairing of chocolate & peanut butter. Honey & Mustard, Lime & coconut. All are classic pairings in a long list of already discovered pairings.
So, how can an amateur or a professional add flavors to their drinks to make them, tasty?
One of the first ways is through Rinsing
1. Rinsing a glass with another liquid
The inside of the glass can hold tiny bits of liquid. When I finish drinking a soda, for instance, there are tiny beads of it leftover. That just sticks to the inside of the glass, until I clean it. It’s not enough to drink, but enough to warrant a cleaning. It’s the same idea, except instead of icky soda, we put good smells into the glass, like seven herbs and spices. Wait am I ordering a drink at KFC.
The second way is one I already mentioned the atomizers.
2. Atomizers
Deep research into atomizers found debating opinions. I will try to do justice to both sides. To my former bartender’s credit. I am not sure which drinks she used the atomizer on, and which one she used an orange slice.
A typical atomizer holds one smell at a time, that it than vaporizer into a mist. The number of drinks you make per night that uses that one smell differs among bartenders.
A glass may be cleaned, or a spoon can mix many things in a night, or its life, while an atomizer can’t. For the economic bartender that makes only a few drinks at home, having an atomizer is not a necessity. Beginners should focus on other elements besides the grand show of using tiny batteries.
The next one is one that I had never thought of, but after researching makes total sense!
3. Floating
Smell alteration means knowing some basic biology. The nose is near the mouth. Ok, glad we got that out of the way. It’s where most people drink from when drinking. Even those who use a straw are lifting the glass to their faces. Except for the weirdo’s with seven feet long straws, coupled together with home-made tape.
Floating drinks, or layered drinks, work with a scientific principle called buoyancy. The buoyancy of liquids means: oil in water will always rise to the top. A fun experiment for children, to ooh, and ah at in teaching them. The liquor with a higher density, will always rise to the top, and thus making it the first smelled thing each time.
4. Seating
The opposite of floating is seating. Where specific flavors are put at the bottom of the glass. The seating of a liquor means that it will have different textures, and tastes throughout the drink. Changing from strawberry to banana the further into the drink.
Both floating, and seating do create fantastic visual drinks.
Making drinks is something more complex, and much deeper than I could have imagined. It is inspiring to me, how to make all these drinks, and see what they taste like. I think learning about the complexities, makes me want to drink more. I hope it has the same effect on you!
