A new study published in Scientific Reports uses science to show how adding water to your whiskey is actually good for the drink.
The claim the study explores is that by adding the right amount of water to your straight whiskey, flavors bubble up to the top and the taste improves. Although whiskey experts have reportedly touted this claim for years, it was never studied for its veracity…until now.
Ran Friedman of the Linnaeus University Center for Biomaterials Chemistry in Sweden undertook the study, according to Smithsonian.com, after a visit to Scotland, the homeland of the amber brew. Friedman reportedly was made curious after observing locals adding water to “even the most rarified Scotches.”
(For those who aren’t connoisseurs of the beverage, Scotch is whiskey made in Scotland. It is primarily made from malted barley and is spelled without the ‘e,’ as in whisky.)
Friedman, being the scientist he is, investigated the matter to discover, once and for all, if the Scottish tradition had any weight to it. He and his colleague, Bjorn Karlsson, used computer modeling as the method to answer their questions.
Using their computer modeling method, Merit Kennedy with NPR writes, Friedman and Karlsson simulated “how the molecules in Scotch interact with one another.” The computer simulation first stripped whiskey down three categories, studying its root elements water and ethanol (alcohol) along with a third, guaiacol. The element guaiacol is more commonly found in single-malt Scotches; it gives them their smoky taste.
Friedman and Karlsson note that water and alcohol do not uniformly mix. What else doesn’t uniformly mix with water? Guaiacol. In fact, both alcohol and guaiacol are partially repelled by water.
The whiskey-enthusiast chemists found in their computer simulations that “taste-creating molecules,” such as guaiacol, and alcohol molecules tended to cluster on the surface of glasses with lower alcohol concentrations. Alternately, in glasses with high alcohol concentrations tended, the taste-creating molecules would disperse and spread out through the glass.
The position of these taste-creating molecules, the researchers claim, is essential to the smell and taste of the Scotch whiskey. It also explains why whiskey is diluted pre-bottle. “Straight out of the cask,” writes Kennedy, “it might be up to 65 percent alcohol by volume, though it is typically then diluted to about 40 percent before bottling.”
Friedman and Karlsson concluded “adding a few drops of water would…continue to increase the concentration of guaiacol molecules at the surface, potentially improving the taste.”
So go ahead, add a few drops of water to your whiskey. But only a few! Karlsson claims that there could be reason for caution. He suggests that there could also be a chemical reason against adding too much water. Our receptors on our tongue and nose can sometimes strike a tricky balance. Karlsson explains by adding water, “there’s a risk that you actually don’t detect it with your nose or your tongue.”
The key is in the balance it would seem. The good news is if you ruin your first glass of whiskey by adding too much water, you can always pour another.
