Balancing Flavours

The biggest challenge to mixing drinks and creating original ones is balance. This is what makes one Manhattan better than another or one drink a classic and the other forgettable. In the big picture, this means choosing the best products and matching presentation to flavour. In the more technical sense, this means finding equilibrium between each ingredient to maintain a balance of flavours. By looking at the science behind taste we can learn better ways to balance flavour and some tricks to making better cocktails.

Traditionally the cocktail is an aperitif to be enjoyed before a meal to whet the appetite. Yes, there are also digestifs, but these should be balanced in a similar way. The ‘classic’ era from which most bartenders find inspiration had a focus on dry, spirit-forward drinks. The more developed a palate is, the more it will crave this dryness as it enables more clarification and intensity of flavour. The goal to mixing drinks is to negotiate between each flavour component to achieve this overall dryness and stimulate the palate. What this feels like in the mouth is a slight tingling on the back of the tongue, activating the saliva glands. Too much sweetness will have an opposite effect, muting the palate and coating the tongue, which not only suppresses the appetite but also dulls flavour. There is also the issue of sweet drinks generally containing too much sugar, of which nobody's diet needs more.

To understand how to balance better, we must first understand how taste works. There are thousands of taste buds on your tongue and even some in other parts of the mouth and throat, all containing up to a hundred taste receptor cells. These chemically interact with any substance in the mouth and send a signal to the brain that is translated into taste. For example, sourness is a chemical recognition of hydrogen ions present in acidic substances like lemon juice. Biologically humans evolved to seek out energy-rich foods and avoid poison, which is why sweet tastes so good and bitter is aversive.

Taste can be separated into basic categories: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory. Texture, aroma, temperature, and alcohol concentration also play key roles, as do appearance and psychology, but we will focus just on taste reception. These categories can be separated into two groups:

Group A:        Sweet                        Savory (Umami)                   Viscous
Group B:        Sour (Acidity)           Bitter                                      Proof              [DRY]

[Salty is not included here because it acts more as a flavour enhancer by intensifying most flavours. Salt in the form of minerals is present in small amounts in mineral water, and some drinks like the Bloody Mary or the Margarita can actually contain salt.]
Each type of flavour in Group A is proportional to one another. For example, increasing viscosity will increase the perceived sweetness of a drink, so using a thicker liqueur or adding egg white will achieve a similar result to adding more sugar. Likewise, flavour types in Group B are proportional, so increasing sourness will increase the perceived bitterness or using a higher-proof spirit will increase perceived sourness, and so on.

Group A and Group B are inversely proportional to one another, meaning they have opposite effects on taste. For example, increasing the amount of sugar will reduce sourness, while increasing bitter components will reduce sweetness. The goal overall is to balance between the groups to achieve dryness by leaning slightly towards Group B. Too much of Group A and your drink will be cloying and flat, but too much of Group B will be harsh and certain ingredients will dominate.
A few notes on each component:

Sweet: this can be represented by simple syrup, a liqueur, or a wine. Keep in mind that some liqueurs are sweeter than others and you may be required to balance accordingly. Liqueurs also have varying proofs and viscosities, and in the case of amaro, varying bitterness.

Savory: while it doesn't make many appearances, it can still play a part in drinks. The Bloody Mary, Red Snapper, and Caesar are the obvious examples because of the addition of spices, sauces, and seasoning salts, but a lesser known example is celery bitters. Some of the herbal components to the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters specifically have a savory element.

Viscosity: the addition of egg makes the biggest difference, but liqueur viscosity and simple or gum syrup will also play roles. Adding egg white has many effects on a drink, but probably the most important is increasing the perceived sweetness, which allows you to add less sugar than you might otherwise need.

Sour: this can also be described as acidity, as the sour component in drinks is citrus juice and it is citric acid in the juice that causes the sour taste response on the tongue. Carbonic acid is another form of acidity used in drinks in the form of soda water and sparkling wine and can also be used to balance sweetness. For example, a French 75 should be made a little sweeter before the addition of the dry sparkling wine.

Bitter: perhaps the most interesting of flavour responses, this is literally an on/off switch. While intensity can vary, there are not the nuances to bitter that there are to sour or sweet. This response is one we evolved biologically to protect us from poison, as many bitter substances in nature are dangerous. For this reason, bitterness is entirely an acquired taste and can be more intense for some people than others. Bitter ingredients should be used with judgment as a bartender and balanced accordingly. While some of the best and most interesting drinks have some degree of bitterness, not all drinkers will be able to taste any flavour beyond the harsh response on the tongue.

Proof: this is often an overlooked factor in balancing cocktails. The higher-proof the spirit, the more the flavour will cut through other ingredients, and more importantly, the drier the drink will be as it will increase sour and bitter perception while decreasing sweet. For this reason, using spirits over 80 proof is always desirable when mixing cocktails. In the formative years of bartending most spirits were 100 proof or even higher. As previously mentioned, the drier the drink the more flavour it will offer, so using 100 proof instead of 80 proof whiskey in your Manhattan will make a noticeable difference. If your drink won’t balance properly and you have all the components you want, try using a higher proof base.

There are numerous other factors affecting the taste of drinks, from how cold they are to how pretty they are to how visibly enjoyable they are to the people around you. Biology also affects taste, with specific gender, age, and body type all determining how taste is perceived. There are also specific chemical flavour compounds that increase the perception of sweetness, such as lychee, caramel, or banana, and others that decrease it, like angelica and juniper. With such an overwhelming number of factors, the best place to start is to balance basic flavours properly beginning with an understanding of taste group interaction. Happy mixing!

To learn more about taste, visit the "science" section of www.andonemorefortheroad.com or check out Darcy O'Neil's slide show on the science of taste at www.artofdrink.com

The Barrel-Aging of Cocktails

Barrel-aging cocktails was a hot trend in the bartending scene two to three years ago, but was it actually a new idea? Or, was it just another rediscovered one getting all the bar geeks excited for the usual fifteen minutes?

The practice of storing cocktails is plausibly as old as the cocktail's peak of popularity itself. Bartending 'grandfather' Jerry Thomas makes mention of storing pre-made drinks in bottles on the bar (the Brandy, Gin, and Bourbon Cocktails to be specific) for efficiency reasons in his 1862 guide, "How To Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant's Companion." There was also the issue of enjoying a cocktail while on the road, and making and bottling cocktails at home allowed this luxury. The effects of bottle-aging are considerably less noticeable than those of barrel-aging, however, so how far back were cocktails being aged in wood? Thanks to G.F. Heublein & Bro. in New York the answer is definitively at least to 1910, as we can see from a "Club Cocktails" advertisement printed that year, reading "Club Cocktails are mixed to measure - by experts - of selected liquors. Then they are aged in wood." Another advertisement from 1912 reads "[Club Cocktails] obtain their delicious flavour and delicate aroma by aging in wood before bottling. A new cocktail can never have the flavour of an aged cocktail." Heublein continued advertising bottled cocktails until the 1960's, though they stopped barrel-aging - or at least stopped mentioning it - as the true selling point of Club Cocktails was likely that a mixed drink could be enjoyed from the comfort of one's own home. The bottled (and canned) mixed drink torch was carried on in the form of cheap Martinis and Manhattans, and of course in the 1990's by their bastard children: the artificially-flavoured vodka sours and sickly sweet liqueur mixtures.

Jump ahead to the late 2000's in London where Tony Conigliaro at 69 Colebrooke Row was bottle-aging cocktails inspired by the taste of vintage Dubonnet. The effects were noticeable and delicious after a year of aging and he decided to share the results with his bar patrons, one of whom was Jeffrey Morgenthaler from Portland's Clyde Common. Taking inspiration from Conigliaro, Morgenthaler decided to make a large batch of a cocktail and age it not just in a bottle but in a barrel, which led to even more delicious results and the trend spread like wildfire among cocktail cities throughout 2010 and the following year.  

What happens to a cocktail inside a barrel? In the previous post on barrel-aging spirits the interaction between wood and alcohol were explained chemically. These reactions are not dramatically different but occur at a considerably different rate due to a decrease in proof and an increase in acidity. Cocktails are a combination of wines, liqueurs, syrups, bitters, and spirits, all of which have very different chemical properties that react differently with the barrel leading to unique overall results from drink to drink. The key chemical reaction is the extraction of hemicellulose from the wood, which increases the amount of reducing sugars in the solution and thereby increases good flavours, rounds edges, and reduces the acidity. The more acidic the alcoholic solution and the lower the proof, the faster the extraction. Spirits are considerably less acidic and have a higher ABV (alcohol-by-volume) than wine which is why they require much longer aging periods. Cocktails can have ABV's of 20-50 percent depending on the composition and the aging period will have to be adjusted accordingly lest too much acidity be lost and the taste will become "flat" or "flabby," as some poor-quality wines are often described.

The second important reaction is oxidation, which occurs when the cocktail is exposed to air both while pouring it into the barrel and while it is at rest. As described in the previous post, this is the chemical reaction between a compound and oxygen in the air which can break down or alter molecular compositions. Wine and spirit oxidation have quite well-understood oxidation reactions because they are fairly consistent substances. One of the main reactions is the oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde, the latter of which has a complex aroma with qualities of grass and green fruit, but also nuts, coffee, and grains. Further oxidation can occur breaking down acetaldehyde to acetic acid, which can add depth to the aging product but in excess can make it harsh and overly acidic. The components of a cocktail will undergo these reactions to different extents at different rates, with fortified wines like vermouth being affected much more quickly than liqueurs or spirits. A Negroni would therefore reach its aging plateau before a Manhattan before a Red Hook and so on. Morganthaler claimed the ideal aging period is somewhere between five and seven weeks, with a recommended daily tasting for quality checks.  

While cocktail-aging is not new it is definitely an exciting experiment from a taste perspective - but what about its consequences on bartending? Since the Jerry Thomas-era the bartender has been viewed as a magician of sorts, creating new and delightful flavours and experiences to suit any mood using only seemingly medial tools and a collection of liquors. Both new and experienced cocktail drinkers flock to the top bars for impromptu creations or well-executed classics. Does it not remove the excitement and anticipation to have one's mixed drink poured from a barrel or removed from a fridge pre-bottled? Worse yet, does this process not negate the importance of skill behind the wood? There is a great satisfaction in seeing a Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, or Mint Julep built in the traditional manner with great attention to detail by an experienced professional, and the drink only tastes better having watched and waited for completion. Perhaps most importantly, however, the bartender's role is one of service. He or she should be engaging, polite, attentive, and always a host to his or her guests. At the end of the day, every bartender's first priority should always be this service as guests come to enjoy an experience and not simply the practical quality of the drinks. The aging and bottling of cocktails can easily perpetuate the tendency for some bartenders to focus too much on craft and not enough on service, and in the worst of cases it can endorse laziness. However, if aging a cocktail enhances its flavour and is used by good bartenders as part of a well-executed cocktail program without encumbering the true values of their role then it is perhaps an excellent idea.

The Science of Barrel-Aging

The most desired of spirits are aged in one way or another. These products are more expensive by virtue of this aging and have arguably more enjoyable flavours and aromas than those that are unaged. Myths about aged spirits causing stronger intoxication or worse hangovers and strange social stigmas about darker-coloured spirits being less approachable have left interest in these products to generally more knowledgeable and experienced drinkers. The truth is that aging softens the ‘burn’ of the ethanol while smoothing out flavours and adding even more pleasant ones. The question is: what exactly is happening inside that barrel?

The process of aging alcoholic beverages is just as old as fermentation and distillation for the simple reason that the products needed to be stored and transported. Storing, be it in clay pots, barrels, or simply bottles, exposes the alcohol to both the air and the storage materials themselves for long periods of time, altering the chemical structure of the alcoholic products. This can change the colour, aroma and flavour in various and mostly beneficial ways. (While beer and wine have their own science and research and aging can take place in several kinds of materials, this article will focus solely on spirits aged in wood barrels).

To understand these chemical reactions, one first must understand the basic components:

- Wood barrels were designed for transportation, enabling one man to move large weights around easily by just rolling the container. This is the purpose behind the wheel-like shape of the barrel, which was achieved by bending the wood. By heating the wood, traditionally by lighting a fire inside the barrel, it could be bent into shape. The charred wood on the inside of the barrel adds flavour and colour to its contents. Oak was and is the most common wood used for barrels because it is durable, easy to shape, fairly inexpensive, and more inert than other woods (meaning it is less reactive to its contents).

- Spirits are created through distillation of a fermented product, be it wine, grain mash, fruit, plants, and so on. Distillation yields primarily ethanol, but also aldehydes, esters, and fatty acids, all of which have very specific flavours and aromas. It is the unique combination of these chemicals that make spirits different from one another. Multiple distillations and filtering can remove many of these compounds to create a "clean" or aroma-less and flavourless spirit (i.e. vodka). The choice of raw materials, the fermentation process, and the distillation technique and equipment will all contribute to the overall chemical composition and therefore smell and taste of the final product.

By combining these components and exposing them to the surrounding environment, numerous chemical reactions occur. The following are the most important factors:

Time
Distilling alcohol creates beneficial byproducts, as mentioned above, but also creates bad-tasting and poisonous byproducts, including butane, methanol, hydrazines, acetates, and acetaldehydes. Both good and bad byproducts are grouped together under the label "congeners" (a category of some debate, none of which will be discussed here). Fortunately, the good congeners happen to be quite stable, whereas the bad ones break down over time. Aging a distilled product allows this time, thereby decreasing the amount of bad tastes and poisons and increasing the amount of good flavour and aroma components.

Interestingly, time seems to be the most unpredictable of barrel-aging factors. Products can go from tasting great to awful or vice-versa in a matter of days or years. There is a consensus, however, that there is a decay rate of change. In other words, at some point the changes to the spirit stop and further aging becomes fairly moot. Some researchers have approximated the effects of barrel aging by using sine wave mathematics (a very common composite representation of natural processes). This research shows that basically all the effects of aging occur by fifteen years (99.5% when assuming that no signs of change in the product are noticeable after a period of thirty years, a consensus among many distillers). In fact, almost a third of the full effect of barrel-aging occurs within the first year, and almost half after the second. Many bourbon producers claim that eight years is the magic aging number, and by this mathematical approximation 93% of aging effects will have taken place by this point. Interestingly, most Scotch ages twelve to fifteen years. This spirit is very often aged in used barrels, which would slow down the reaction rate between spirit and wood. As for very long-term aging, this mathematical explanation shows only a 0.5% change in chemical composition from fifteen to thirty years in the barrel. Again, this is an approximation used to understand the concept and aging is by no means this simple. Information from distillers and tasters alike do seem congruent with its generalizations and for the purpose of discussion it is both useful and interesting.

Air
Oxygen is extremely reactive, and makes up for about one fifth of our atmosphere. Almost any material undergoes a chemical reaction when exposed to oxygen, a common example being metal rusting. Exposing a distilled alcohol to oxygen will cause chemical reactions with the unwanted congeners mentioned above, facilitating their removal from the product. Wood is porous, allowing for only small amounts of air to pass in and out of the barrel, controlling the rate at which the congeners are oxidized. During this process, some ethanol will also oxidize or simply evaporate, and the proof (alcohol-by-volume) will drop slightly. This is called the "angel's share," as early distillers saw the volume drop by itself and so believed that angels watched over their products and took some as payment. The type of climate aside from temperature does play a small role here, though not a very important one. For example, barrels aging near the ocean will absorb small amounts of salt water, but this is very low on the list of reactions affecting the spirit.  

Temperature
The climate temperature where the barrels are aging will affect the rate of oxidation, and can cause evaporation as well. Warm climates will cause faster reactions, and the aging will cause changes more quickly but more harshly, occasionally removing desirable components as well. Barrels even "breathe," expelling gas during the day when temperatures are warmer, and drawing gas in at night when it's cool. To better control these conditions, barrels are usually placed in underground cellars where temperatures can be regulated and climate changes minimized.

Barrel-Type
Some barrel regulations exist for whiskies. For example, bourbon can only be aged in new charred oak barrels, so will absorb and react only with the components in the oak itself. Irish and Scottish whiskies, however, can be aged in used barrels, such as those previously used for sherry or bourbon aging. This will impart flavours and aromas from the previous occupants giving the spirit new and unique characteristics. As for the type of wood, spirits are basically aged in one of two kinds of wood: American or French oak. Due to specifics in harvesting and production as well as climate there are some differences between the two that affect spirit aging. French barrels are lower in tannins due to production procedure and if toasted contribute smoky and spicy flavours. American oak is naturally lower in tannins, the production of the barrels is a harsher process that releases more flavouring compounds, and the barrels are charred more heavily which gives stronger vanilla flavour and often that of smoke.

Barrel Char
The amount of char, or how long the barrel was burned, has great effect on the flavour of an aged spirit. Heavily charred barrels impart much stronger flavours of smoke, whereas lightly charred ones tend to be sweeter and offer subtle smoke or "toast." The reason for this goes beyond the obvious (more fire means more smoky taste). Plants contain sugars called hemi-cellulose (a combination of eight sugars altogether) that caramelize when burned. Oak also contains other compounds like lignin, tannins, and vannillins that all break down when the wood is charred. The resulting chemical products give colour to the spirit, as well as sweetness and a collection of subtle flavours. Charring the barrel too much will break down these compounds too far and negate their flavour contributions, as will a harsher handling of the wood during barrel construction.

Humidity
If humidity is very high, more ethanol evaporates during aging, while if humidity is low, more water is lost. Aside from the changes in proof this will cause, water and ethanol act as solvents in the barrel and as such contain many other compounds responsible for flavour and aroma. Water will contain more sugars and colours, whereas ethanol will contain the lignins, vanillins, and tannins that contribute more to depth of flavour. For this reason, distillers in more humid climates will typically work with higher cask strengths (fill the barrels with spirit at a higher proof) to avoid losing too many of these components in the ethanol solution.

The above are the most obvious and measurable of contributing factors to the chemical process that spirits undergo while sitting inside a barrel, but there are countless others. The quality of an aged spirit is dependent on so many circumstances and controlling these as best as possible is just part of what makes distillers such dedicated masters of their craft. Understanding the science and subtleties of the process gives an even deeper appreciation for the final product. As the drinking populace becomes more knowledgeable, hopefully aged spirits lose their social stigmas and are enjoyed by all - particularly those of higher quality and those of small distilleries.

Drinking Strategies: Intoxication

Drunk. Intoxicated. Loaded. Sloshed. Bombed. Hammered. Smashed. Wasted. Pissed. There are so many ways to explain how it feels, but only one way to explain exactly how it works. In my last article, I discussed the science of a hangover. Now we’ll look at the immediate effects alcohol has on your body, how it affects different body-types, and what factors you can control.

• When you drink, ethanol is absorbed into the bloodstream via digestion (20% in the stomach and 80% in the small intestine as we learned last time). If the amount coming into your body exceeds what it can expel, you become intoxicated.
• Your blood transports the ethanol through your body where it is absorbed by the tissues. How quickly this absorption and the subsequent metabolism occurs is determined by body-type and what you've eaten that day.
• Your brain's neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate, which are related to both speech and movement, are disrupted. The cerebellum is also affected, inhibiting motion and balance.
• Dopamine is increased in the brain, creating a feeling of pleasure.
• The inhibitory behavioral centres in the cerebral cortex are depressed, lowering inhibition, slowing information processing from the senses, and disrupting thought processes.
• The hypothalamus and pituitary glands, which coordinate automatic brain functions and hormones, are inhibited. Nerve centres responsible for sexual arousal and performance get depressed, so while sexual urge increases, performance decreases.
• The medulla is affected which induces sleepiness, slows breathing, and lowers body temperature.
• Low blood glucose levels cause shakiness, sweating, dizziness, lethargy, and blurred vision. Carbohydrate boosts will counteract this, which is why you often crave snacks when drunk.
• Ethanol is diuretic, making your kidneys push fluids to the bladder faster than usual causing dehydration, which results in thirst, dry-mouth, cramps, dizziness, and faintness.
• Ethanol metabolism is mainly handled by the liver. A byproduct of this process is acetaldehyde, which is toxic for the liver, brain, and stomach lining, causing headache, nausea, heartburn, and vomiting. The liver will need extra water, but since ethanol is a diuretic, supply is low and the liver steals water from other organs like the brain (which leads to even worse headaches).
• Mineral balance in the blood is disrupted causing even further dehydration.

To summarize, when you're drunk you get thirsty, hungry, wild and uninhibited, stupid, sleepy and dizzy, while speech, movement, and sexual performance start to suck. Most of you already knew that, but now you know why!
We can see factors you can control:

• The rate and volume of consumption.
• How much you've eaten, which will slow absorption times.
• How much water you drink to counteract dehydration.

You can also

• Avoid certain medication, over-the-counter drugs, and narcotics that can make symptoms worse.
• Lower levels of fatigue and stress, both of which increase alcohol's effects.
• Increase tolerance. Regular drinking develops your liver's ability to break down alcohol more rapidly and brain cells become less sensitive to the effects

Unfortunately there are also issues affecting intoxication that you can’t control:

• The younger and healthier you are, generally the faster you metabolize alcohol.
• Overweight people generally get drunk faster because fatty tissues contain less water than muscle, decreasing the body's dilution capabilities.
• Women generally metabolize alcohol slower due to having less body water, lower levels of the enzymes that break down alcohol, and more body fat (see above).

Using all of the above information, we can come up with some general tips to avoid getting too drunk - essentially the same rules to avoiding hangovers:

1. Eat. The more and better you eat, the slower alcohol is absorbed. Having a snack while you're drinking will also counteract sleepiness.
2. Drink lots of water. Ethanol has many dehydrating effects, plus your liver needs extra water to metabolize it.
3. Know the proof of your drinks and don't drink low-quality liquor.
4. Be aware of drunk symptoms. The more symptoms you experience the closer you are to your limit.
5. Be a young, fit, healthy male. This may be impossible for you, but this type of person generally metabolizes alcohol the fastest. Keep these factors in mind depending on the company you keep while drinking.

Next time I'll talk about something less health-conscious - the cheapest ways to get drunk. Beer? Wine? Shots? Cocktails? Penny for penny, what is the most affordable way to get wasted.

Drinking Strategies: Hangovers

Hangovers suck. If you're like me, you love to drink but you don't like getting drunk and you hate getting sick or hungover. The key to drinking without encountering these problems is not just moderation - it's strategy. First, let's look at the causes of a hangover, and then some ways to avoid one. The interesting thing about this topic is that there is a lack of cohesive and definitive research on the matter.
Here’s what we do know:
- Booze contains ethanol, which is a poison. Drinking it is bad, but it just feels so darn good, so let's move on.
- Ethanol, being a poison, or "drug," will create biochemical dependencies and therefore cause withdrawal when removed from the body. This can be attributed to some hangover symptoms, from mood swings and headaches to indigestion and body temperature issues.
- Ethanol is a diuretic, meaning it increases urine production in the body, using up water and causing dehydration. This can have unpleasant consequences, from thirst and lethargy to dizziness and headaches.
- The liver is responsible for breaking down ethanol, which in turn creates even more toxic substances that can inhibit other processes in your body, such as the Citric Acid Cycle. This causes fatigue, moodiness, and lack of concentration.
- About 20% of the alcohol you drink will be absorbed into the bloodstream in the stomach, and the remaining 80% will be absorbed in the small intestine. You could be a lot drunker later than you are now.
- The stomach absorption causes the lining to become inflamed and both the stomach and pancreas overproduce digestive chemicals, leading to nausea and sometimes vomiting.
By combining the above information with personal experience, I've come up with some rules to preventing hangovers that are hopefully helpful to the drinkers out there who don't have the luxury of sleeping one off.

1) Eat
Seriously. This is the key to keeping alcohol in check. Scientifically speaking, alcohol is metabolized slower in the body if it has to compete with food - specifically fatty food. The longer your body takes to process what you eat, the longer it will take to metabolize your booze as well. If you are going to drink at all, make sure you eat something and if you plan to drink a lot, make sure you have a big meal beforehand (with lots of protein and fat). If you’re feeling more tipsy than you’d like, have a snack.

2) Drink Water
As mentioned above, dehydration is a key part of a hangover, so hydrate yourself. You should be drinking at least one glass of water per alcoholic drink and more when you get home. If you're not getting up from the bar to pee at least a couple times during your stay, you're doing something wrong. (Bartenders, this is a lesson for you too: make sure your guest has a full glass of water at all times.)
3) Know your limit
Cliche, yes, but everyone would stop mentioning it if people didn't suck at it. A good tip here is not to measure in the number or types of drinks, but know exactly what your body feels like through each stage of drunkenness. It's dangerous to say you're fine with three cocktails because you're counting glasses rather than keeping track of what you ate that day, how much water you're drinking, and the exact proof of your drinks. Be aware of exactly how your body feels when you're warm, tipsy, drunk, and when it's time to stop.

4) Understand what you're drinking
Know that a sleeve of beer, a glass of wine, and 2 oz of 80 proof spirit have basically the same amount of total alcohol. Knowing this, though, keep in mind that a sleeve (about 16 oz) of beer also contains a lot of water and takes considerably longer to consume, and therefore will get you drunk slower than doing a couple shots. Pay attention to the alcohol content of what you're drinking; for example, ordering Booker's at 130 proof will mess you up faster than ordering Jim Beam at 80 proof. A lot of European beers are higher proof than American products, a Cabernet is higher than a Pinot Gris, and so on, so pace yourself accordingly. Sip cocktails, don't chug them, and drink a glass of water in between each shot. Remember that alcohol isn't absorbed all at once in the stomach, so sometimes you can get hit in an hour from what you’ve had despite feeling fine right now.
Another tip here is to be honest with the bartender. If you really want another but you're close to your limit, tell him/her just that and ask for something low-proof.

5) Don't drink cheap liquor
Most establishments you visit will be using the cheapest possible liquors in the wells, and while that's great for profits it's bad for your body. For example, Tequila is only made from 100% blue agave if stated so on the label, and the cheap Tequilas you'll find in most places only have to be 51% agave by law, which means the rest is made up of cheaply produced neutral spirits, sugars, colouring, and even flavouring. The same goes for blended Scotch and Canadian whiskey, the latter of which often contains sugar, colour, and flavouring. A consistently safe bet is American whiskey, which has stricter laws; even the crappiest American whiskey is much higher quality than bad Tequila, Canadian, Scotch, or vodka. Those of you who think vodka is a safe drink, be aware that not every country has laws governing how it's produced and there are no laws against additives. Cheaper spirits use cheaper components and processes, which brings with it bad byproducts, so the better the quality of spirit, the better the drunk.  If you've been drunk off good whiskey and can compare that to a cheap Tequila drunk, you know what I mean. If you’re doing a shot, it’s probably cheap liquor. Consuming better quality spirits will help you drink slower (because they won’t be served in a shot glass and you’ll usually be paying more and will therefore appreciate it more).
A note to the above: just because something is more expensive does NOT mean it's better quality. It helps to do your research, ask knowledgeable bartenders, and try lots of products - you'll be able to taste the difference eventually. Many spirit companies spend a lot more on marketing than on production, and just because the bottle is on the top shelf doesn't mean it deserves to be.

Take these tips to heart (or write them on your hand if you're going drinking because you'll probably forget by the time it’s too late), and I'll be back soon with a discussion of alcohol's immediate effect on the body as well as some information on the "congener" debate.

Science of Taste: Personality & Genetics (and how to apply this all to bartending)

Aside from using all this taste information for balancing flavours and understanding how different ingredients interact with each other, there is also important information here about being a bartender and serving your guests. Darcy's presentation revealed some really interesting generalizations that are very useful behind the wood if you're serving someone for the first time.

To touch on mood again, the happier you are the higher your taste perception is, so if you're in a great mood you'll probably enjoy more moderate flavours, and if you're feeling depressed or down, stronger and more flavourful foods and drinks will actually be a more enjoyable choice. Dopamine (essentially the pleasure-biochemical) is released in your brain the more you drink, but the more alcohol is in your system the more your taste perception is dulled. This is is one of the reasons why you should start with lighter spirits and drinks and graduate to digestifs with more bitter and higher-proof components. If you're serving someone who's had a few there's not as much need to moderate flavours as when they first sit down.

Personality also plays a role in how people taste. To put it more specifically, everyone's genetics are different and therefore everyone's personality and taste is different and there are some consistent relations between the two. Typically, people who are very upbeat, perky, and excitable tend to have more sensitive taste perception and therefore will prefer more delicate, moderate drinks and won't like bitter flavours as much. Low-key, down-to-earth personalities often prefer more flavourful food and drink.

Race and age can also affect these responses, with age of course decreasing taste overall (which occurs more rapidly with men), and Africans and Asians typically having a stronger bitter response.

There are three different recognized categories in tasting through this range of responsiveness:
non-tasters (at about 20% of the population),
normal tasters (at 60%),
and super tasters (at 20%).
Super-tasters actually possess a high taste-responsiveness to detection of the PTC/PROP chemicals that increases the response to bitter and will react much more dramatically to this taste than other people. I actually had the pleasure of watching this in action during Darcy's presentation as he handed out strips of paper containing PTC (phenylthiocarbamide), which is genetically specific so non-tasters will get nothing from it, normal tasters will find it fairly bitter, and super-tasters will, as Darcy put it, be 'emotionally upset for the rest of the day.' I can you tell you that he wasn't wrong because it turns out my lady is a super-taster (a fact she STILL proudly and constantly reminds me of), and in fact the only one in the room. She was visibly upset, complained about the flavour all day, and couldn't enjoy dinner that night. I, on the other hand, found it unpleasant but not torturous, and there were people in the room who even put several strips on their tongues and got no taste at all. These non-tasters have literally fewer taste buds and taste response biochemicals, and likely due to their bodies adapting to having one weaker sense, have a much stronger sense of smell then other kinds of tasters.
Non-tasters tend to be male, and they tend to have larger bodies or be prone to obesity. Super-tasters tend to be smaller, thinner, and female, and have the highest response to bitter, so will have or have had trouble enjoying flavours like coffee, grapefruit, or even alcohol in general. They can also be more sensitive to other flavours and tastes as well, including spicy foods and sweetness.

As a bartender, you can use all of this information and "judge" people by their appearance when they walk in to a bar. This is a generalization, of course, but the majority of super-tasters are slim women, whereas the majority of non-tasters are overweight men. So if a slim, young, and pretty girl sits at the bar, it's likely she won't enjoy a Negroni or something similarly bitter, but will probably very much enjoy something more subtle and perhaps a little sweeter like Corpse Reviver #2 or just a 1:1 Martini with a really nice gin and a really nice vermouth (but don't go too sweet, which you shouldn't be doing anyway). Meanwhile, the large, middle-aged man who sits down would probably enjoy something stronger and more bitter, like perhaps a Toronto or Brooklyn cocktail.

When making a drink, focus on balancing primary flavours using the balance information in the previous posts, and make sure you're always thinking about how other people taste and not just how you taste. Use aromas, texture, and the appearance of your drinks to get the most out of them, and I will again reiterate - please don't use too much sugar.

Thanks again to Darcy for his wonderful presentation and all the awesome and intriguing research he has on his site.

Make sure you check out Savory and Bitter
Sour and Salty
Sweet 
and factors that affect taste other than your tongue

Science of Taste: Other Factors Than Your Tongue

We've now looked at all the actual taste factors that affect taste and how they interact, but there are many factors that affect taste. Being a sensory response, it is interpreted by the brain and therefore susceptible to all factors affecting the brain, which is just about everything. Aside from the taste groups, there are several other important variables:
 - smell/aroma
 - physical properties, such as viscosity and temperature
 - proof (alcohol content)
 - genetics
 - mood
 - social factors

The first two are quite simple. Drinking something that smells bad to you will make it taste worse, drinking something that smells floral or fruity will bring out those flavours, etc. Increased viscosity will increase the sweet response on the tongue and decrease the bitter, as previously discussed, and temperature can have dramatic effect; for example, if something is very hot, your tongue won't be able to register much flavour at all (which is why you should always let a good tea cool just a bit before sipping it), and similarly if something is ice cold some flavours will be masked. This is why the proper way to enjoy a very high quality spirit is always neat, or, in the case of some whisky/whiskey, with just a little room temperature water. Drinking a fine spirit over ice will inhibit you from really tasting it. Also, keep an eye for cheap spirits that invite you to drink them cold or even frozen because they're usually trying to hide some nasty flavours that are the results of cheap production.
I also should bring up whiskey stones. I've had friends ask me what I think and my answer is that these just don't make sense to me. Reducing the temperature stops you from enjoying all of the flavour, but furthermore it's not diluting anything, which is at least half the reason we use ice. People drink spirits on the rocks mostly because they don't like the alcoholic burn, and it's the dilution from the ice water that helps, not simply cooling it down. This is a topic for another time (and perhaps someone could enlighten me).

As for proof, the higher the ethanol concentration, the higher the bitterness to the tongue, and the less the sourness. Balancing cocktails has so much to do with dilution and not just ingredients, and what you're doing when you stir or shake is not just drop the temperature but reduce the ethanol concentration, allowing flavours to marry and bloom and other nice metaphors. Using a high-proof whiskey in a Manhattan will require more dilution, and also maybe a dash less of bitters - keep that in mind.

Genetics is obvious. We're all different and therefore we all taste differently. This is extremely important to keep in mind when you're making drinks for someone else, and this is what I'll get into for the next post.

Now, mood. How you feel affects everything in your life, in terms of both perception and biochemistry. To simplify this concept, let's look at chemistry - increased seratonin levels will increase both the sweet and bitter perceptions. Seratonin is released when you feel "good" or "happy," which is when your taste is literally sharpened. There is also a brain chemical called noradrenalin, or norepinephrine, that acts both as a neurotransmitter and a hormone and is typically related to a fear response in our bodies, but also nervousness, and is occasionally prescribed to combat depression. The presence of this biochemical in the brain will improve bitter and sour recognition on the tongue. How can this be applied to bartending? Well, maybe it can't really, but it's still interesting.

Social factors affect all of our perceptions, thoughts, opinions - everything. Ever see a movie or read a book you thought was awful, but a friend explains to you why they think it's great and you start to change your opinion? This sort of behaviour is always present and will affect how things taste. If I take a sip of a drink, give a really happy and surprised look and tell you how amazing it is before I slide it over for you to try, it will taste better to you. If I make a disgusted face and say my drink is gross and bitter then offer you a try, your brain is already assuming it's not going to taste good. This is something you can use when behind the bar. Even just acting passionate about the cocktail you're making or telling a customer that it's one of your favourites will already improve what they'll think about it. Having an excited bartender spend three minutes making his all-time favourite tipple complete with a little history will make it quite awkward to admit to him/her that you really hate the taste of it, and your perception will alter to accommodate. This may sound a little crazy, but it probably also makes a lot of sense. Because it does.

Next time we'll take all these taste factors into account then see how they can be applied as a bartender so that you can give your guests the best of service (plus you'll be interested to hear how gender, race, and body-type have common effects on taste so you can judge everyone before they even sit down).

Make sure you check out Savory and Bitter
Sour and Salty
and Sweet


[[ Photography by Shutterstock.com and the other is of John Belushi and I have no idea who took it but it's awesome ]]

Science of Taste: Savory and Bitter

Welcome to the third part of the mini-series on taste science.
Please take a look at the introduction and a discussion of sweet, 

and the discussion of sour and salty. 

Next we'll take a little look at savory and, my favourite (along with many other drinkers, I'm sure), bitter.

Savory/Umami
This flavour is perceived mostly through the glutamic acid found in monosodium glutamate (MSG), and while not traditionally found in cocktails, is starting to make more appearances due to creative mixology. The only old drinks that come to mind are the Bloody Mary and the Caesar in their flavouring salts, but nowadays people are making bacon-infused bourbon, or duck fat-infused bourbon (see: the crazy boys at The Refinery), and so on.

Increasing savory will
- Increase the sweet
- Increase the salty
- Decrease the sour
- Decrease the bitter.

So, for the creative mixologist here, if you have a heavy amount of citrus and bitter in your drink, using a meat or fat-infused spirit might be an outlandish way to balance things out. Similarly, if you start with such an infusion, you need to be careful when adding sugar to the mix.

Finally,


Bitter
The majority of the receptors on your tongue are extremely sensitive to bitter, which from a biological standpoint is likely protection against natural poisons. The most interesting aspect of bitter that Darcy revealed to us is that there is no range to its flavour. All other flavours can have differences, aspects, and so on, but bitter is literally an on/off switch on your tongue. Bitter tastes the same to the tongue regardless of what it is or where it comes from. There is a chemical, an "anti-bitter," that Darcy showed us called adenosine monophosphate that inhibits the bitter receptors (this is approved by the FDA which means it can therefore be used legally in mixology). This opens an interesting door, because it means you could put one drop of this on your tongue then do a shot of Angostura and only get the spice. For real. (We actually did end up putting some on our tongues, it was crazy).
This is often a challenge in mixing drinks - how do you reduce bitterness? This is especially true considering that most people perceive alcohol as bitter. There are several ways:

- Decrease the alcohol-level (proof)
- Decrease the sourness
- Increase the sweetness
- Increase the viscosity
- Increase the fat
- Increase the saltiness
- Increase the umami/savory

Notice the "increase the sweetness." Yes, this is where all the trouble began. I still remember a friend saying to me once that the key to being a good bartender is mixing ingredients so you can't taste the alcohol at all, which still makes me cringe. Obviously this friend is used to the way most drinks have been made for the last 40 years or so - with tons of sugar. The point of this whole series is to look at different ways to balance other than using sugar. If your drink is on the bitter side due to say, a high proof whiskey and a couple extra dashes of aromatic bitters, don't just add simple syrup - try throwing an egg white in the mix, or adding some soda. If it's a sour, consider backing off the juice a bit, or switching to lemon or grapefruit instead of using lime. (The "increase the fat" part here is more for food taste purposes, unless we again visit the duck-fat-infused bourbon that Joel has at The Refinery).

Bitter is the ultimate acquired taste. You literally have to combat biology and train your tongue and body to withstand it so you can enjoy the other flavours involved. Once you do, though, you'll be opening up your palate to so many new and exciting things, and trust me - you won't be able to stop. I constantly crave bitter and smokey flavours nowadays. Once this part of your tongue calms down, you'll get more Christmas-spice from Angostura, more chocolate and coffee from amaro, soft chamomile from Bittermens Boston Bittahs, and so on. You'll also appreciate balance more in what you eat and drink, and probably get ripped, have many lovers, make tons more money, and own a jetpack. I have no conclusive evidence on some of those, but it's worth a shot, right?

Just keep your mind and palate open and ease yourself in via some softer amari and a well-made Old-Fashioned with a new kind of bitters.
I will return on the weekend with a post on the non-tongue-related factors in how we perceive taste, and how you can apply these as a bartender.
Thanks again to Darcy O'Neil for his inspiration and information.


Also check out this post on Personality & Genetics
and this one on other non-tongue factors

[[ Second photo from frontpsych.com ]]

The Science Of Taste: Salty and Sour

We continue on through the Science of Taste (inspired and sourced from Darcy O'Neil) to salty and sour.
You can see my little introduction to this mini-series along with the first of our taste groups, sweet, here. 


Salty
The body response here is primarily a recognition of essential minerals, namely sodium, potassium, and calcium. An excellent source of saltiness for a drink is soda water, as it almost always contains some level of these minerals.

Increasing the salty will
- Increase the sweet
- Decrease the sour
- Decrease the bitter.

A good example of the latter here is drinking bitters. I drink bitters all the time at home by throwing a few dashes in some soda, which makes it more palatable. I can't drink bitters by itself, and some of the most bitter bitters are just too much in water alone (which will still have the dilution), but the soda takes a bit of the edge off. (Plus, it's amazing for an upset stomach - try a few dashes of Angostura in some soda water next time you're having digestion issues.)
If your drink is too sour or bitter, an easy solution is to top with a little soda (drinking a Mojito without the soda, for example, is too sour). If your drink is too sweet, adding soda is probably not a good idea. The level of saltiness in soda is quite small, so this rule should be taken... yes... with a grain of salt. It's still good to consider in this grand scheme of taste-things.

Sour
Sourness is essentially the acidity of the solution, so adding a lot of citrus (citric acid) will make the drink sour. [On the subject of soda water, which is carbonic acid and therefore acidic, the minerals and therefore saltiness of the soda reduce the perceived sourness, making a more balanced taste in your mouth.]

Increasing the sour will
- Increase the salty
- Increase the bitter
- Decrease the sweet.
 
If your drink is too sweet, adding sour will balance it out. If your drink is too bitter, adding sour is not a good idea, and so on. Sour mainly comes from the use of citrus juice, and some types are more sour than others - lime is actually more acidic than lemon, with grapefruit and orange following afterwards. If you need some sour to really cut through a drink and other flavours, lime is the best option. There are a few good examples of this, such as The Last Word, which has both Maraschino and Green Chartreuse dominating the flavour profile, but using lime cuts through the sweetness of the liqueurs but also calms down both flavours more effectively than lemon or grapefruit would.

Also check out this post on Personality & Genetics
and this one on non-tongue factors
and this one on bitter and savory


[[ Photography by DailyBurial.com and VegNews.com ]]

The Science of Taste: Sweet

One of my favourite seminars that I've been to was the "Science of Taste" by Darcy O'Neil at the Art of the Cocktail festival in Victoria last year. Darcy is a man after my own heart because he not only writes about spirits, bitters, and cocktails, he also happens to be a working chemist and ties science into drinking (I myself went to university for chemistry). Check out his website at www.artofdrink.com
He also wrote the book "Fix The Pumps" on the history of the soda fountain, something I mentioned in Russell Davis' Averna soda cocktail from last month's Amaro April.

His presentation was on taste from a scientific perspective, and how this knowledge can be applied to mixology and bartending. He was kind enough to send me the slide show that he used and I'm going to paraphrase certain parts of it here (to see the full show, you'll just have to catch him wherever he takes it next). I found this information not only extremely interesting, but also really helpful in balancing my drinks at home. I'm going to split this into several posts - a number focusing on the types of taste as perceived by your tongue and how they can interact with each other in terms of designing and balancing a drink, and the last focusing on other factors that can affect taste, including even mood and body-type, and how you can use this information as a bartender. It's also necessary to preface this with the fact that everyone has different taste. This is true biologically and psychologically, so everything below is a general rule.

Most of us are aware of the basic taste groups - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. There are also scientifically proven, but as of yet unrecognized groups including metallic, spiciness, and coolness (the last of which is a nerve response and not a flavour response). Taste is very much affected by aroma, viscosity, temperature, mood, genetics, and social aspects of the tasting itself, but these are all things I will summarize later on. To start, we will look at sweetness.

Sweet

Sugar is a chemical fuel for our bodies, and we therefore biologically seek out sweet flavours (hence the increasing amounts of sugar in manufactured and fast foods over the last 50 years or more) - some more than others (see: dude with big gulp full of Coke at the 7-11 or anything on the cocktail list at a chain restaurant). Sweet is the only taste that decreases the perception of other flavours, explaining why sugar continually gets added to both food and drink to hide other tastes.

Now here's where the chemistry comes in:
Increasing sweetness will
- Reduce saltiness
- Reduce acidity (sourness)
- Reduce bitterness.

There are other ways to balance a drink by making it seem sweeter than just adding sugar, such as:
- Increasing the viscosity (via egg white, for example)
- Reducing the bitterness
- Reducing the acidity/sourness
- Reducing the alcohol-level (proof).

So if your drink is a little too sour or bitter, you could add egg white, or increase the dilution to balance what you have.
Secondarily, there are some flavours that increase the perception of sweetness:
- stawberry
- lychee
- caramel
- vanilla
- banana

and some that decrease the perception of sweetness:
- angelica
- floral
- cedar
- juniper.

If your drink is going to be too sweet, using gin as a base or adding a little rose water could balance it, and if your drink isn't sweet enough, you could find creative ways to add other flavours without adding straight sugar (for example, Licor 43 has a strong vanilla flavour, and St. Germain has some lychee similarities).

The lesson here is that sugar is not always necessary, and too much can ruin drinks (and started ruining them in general in the 1970's and still continues today). There are other solutions to balancing a cocktail than just making it more sweet. I should point out that all of the above is related to the PERCEIVED taste of the mixture. So adding sugar does not reduce acidity/sourness, or change the amount of citrus juice in your drink, but it will make your tongue think that this is the case. This is the whole science behind adding too much sugar to drinks in the first place - people want to drink a lot of alcohol without tasting it, and the easiest, quickest, dumbest way to do that is to add tons of sugar. The alcohol level doesn't change, but your tongue thinks it does.

Also check out these posts on
Personality & genetics
other non-tongue factors
savory & bitter
salty & sour


[[ Photo by Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg from the Financial Post ]]