Using the Best Tools to Extract Important Information

Using the Best Tools to Extract Important Information

Using the best tools available is the only way to discover the most important information from a spirits tasting and evaluation. The right tool can provide a large amount of useful information regarding the character and quality of the spirit.

We often use the wrong equipment to diagnose and evaluate. We trip over the objective of accuracy to pick up the most common or prevalent notes in the spirit. Since almost everybody uses these tools, no one ever questions if they right for the task. Imagine trying to remove a Philips head screw with a crescent wrench. That is what happens when we try to get important information from a tulip glass.

• Q: “Why are tulip rims so small?” A: “Small rims collect all aromas so none can escape detection.”  Truth:  97%+ of all detectable molecules at the tulip’s rim are pungent, nose-numbing ethanol. Small rims concentrate pungent, anesthetic ethanol. The rest are congeners/flavors.
• Q: “Why is it so pungent?” A: “Ethanol can’t be separated, live with it, drinking procedures help to get used to it.” Truth: A simple glass design change can open the world of flavor.

Ethanol Effects on Sensory and Social Perception

Few understand ethanol’s impact on olfactory (sense of smell).  High vapor pressure, low boiling point and surface tension accelerate evaporation, and it is by far the most abundant airborne molecule in whiskey.  Definition: Highly volatile, anesthetic (nose-numbing), sharply pungent when concentrated (neat). Spirits = 40% ABV ethanol + 60% water and flavors. More Science

Sensory Ethanol Masks Useful Information

• Raises detection, identification, and discrimination thresholds; subtle aromas are masked.
• Disrupts calcium ion flow, suppressing sensory data flow to the brain.
• Sharp pungency detracts from the focus on detection and identification.
• The common result is known as olfactory fatigue, nose-blindness, or ethanol lock-out.
• The best tools (glassware) deliver more aromas, less ethanol

Female Participation: Why are so few women whiskey club members?  Female olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) are 43% more abundant than male. Ethanol pungency raises caution alarms when smelling from tiny-rim tulips. As a result, few female tulip users sniff spirits ortho-nasally, preferring retro-nasal sampling to avoid pungency.

Industry Education Fails on Delivering Useful Information at Tastings

In the first place, brand ambassadors and spirits industry educators employ tulip glasses to educate, yet do not teach sensory or ethanol’s influence on social group mentality. Additionally, few are willing to risk their reputations by rejecting the accepted tulip norm. Finally, it’s always easier when you don’t have to explain. Tulips are not the best tools to deliver detectable congener aromas. Independent Research.

Defining the Best Tools: Tulip Tasting Crutches

1. Don’t swirl. Swirling is the “engine” that powers evaporation. Narrow bowls restrict swirling. As a matter of fact, wide rims, short height, and fat bowls mean better swirling.
2. Breathe through mouth and nose. Mouth intake is air only, no spirit aromas. Close the mouth and use a glass that does not concentrate ethanol at the nose. Smell is 90% of flavor, therefore, all molecules should pass through the nasal cavity.
3. Add a little water. Ethanol is the most volatile component. Water shuts down all aroma evaporation, including character aromas. Despite attempts to find useful information, in reality we have destroyed it. Equally important, we now have a false impression that it “opened up” the spirit.

Tulips vs Best Tools: NEAT – Useful Information

Within traditional glass shapes a large, wide-mouth tumbler works much better. However, the only shape ever scientifically engineered is the NEAT glass. Not only does NEAT divert anesthetic, pungent ethanol, it also enhances aroma detection and identification. Furthermore, tulips can’t do that.

In Summary, Industry and consumer benefits are positive and meaningful. First, NEAT addresses gender equity. Second, it contributes to quality improvement, and third, NEAT raises consumers’ product perception level. Finally, you get more important, useful information from the best tools. Learn more about how ethanol affects aroma detection.

About The Author

The NEAT Glass

Discovered and developed Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology (NEAT) to enhance the presentation and perception of spirits by separating the disagreeable, numbing aromas of ethanol alcohol from characteristic spirit essences. NEAT connects human physiology, chemistry, and basic physics to improve glassware design to appeal to the flavor senses of smell and taste.

Glassware today is designed in the styling studio, and marketing is added later to sell the design and insinuate function. Inventor of the NEAT glass. Our mission is to educate the public and industry professional to improve knowledge on nosing and tasting spirits. Scientifically designed glassware exposes all traits of a spirit, good and bad, and raises the bar of excellence by exposing the true quality previously hidden by nose numbing ethanol. We are: Changing the Way the World Drinks. NEAT is the Shape of Flavor, and Form Follows Function.

The NEAT Glass (CSO) Corporate Strategy Officer, inventor and entrepreneur, (CRD) Chief Research and Development Arsilica, Inc.

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