A spirit may exhibit certain flavors that are brought to life by the addition of another ingredient, or perhaps altered completely or even extinguished by the addition of a third ingredient. Too many ingredients and you have a muddy, blah-tasting soup. Clashing ingredients or the wrong ratios and you can have a jarring, dreadfully off-balance drink. But by exploring flavors, adding and subtracting, testing and re-testing, we can create wonderful new cocktails and flavor combinations. This play of “flavor math” can sometimes be confusing, but it all begins to make a lot of sense when you can recognize which flavor categories you’re working with and how to use them to either enhance or offset one another.
There is a lot of info out there about the seven basic tastes perceived by the tongue with regard to food, but I’m taking it a step further here by adding the category of “boozy”, which for the purpose of cocktail recipe development, is it’s own thing. With regard to cocktail recipe creating, here’s:
The 8 Tastes:
BOOZY: the characteristic flavor and aroma of the presence of alcohol in a large percentage. It may be sharp, warming, nose-tingling, or burning.
SWEET: perception of the presence of sugars. Honey, fruits, maple syrup.
SOUR: perception of the presence of acids. Citrus, vinegar, yogurt, kombucha.
BITTER: perception of the presence of bases. Certain botanicals like gentian root or cinchona bark, amaro liqueurs, tonic water, coffee, dark chocolate, beer, cranberries, cruciferous vegetables, green tea, bitters.
UMAMI: perception of savory or meaty flavors such as tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, cured meats, some cheeses.
SALTY: Perception of sodium chloride. Sea salt, olives, bacon, pickles, cheeses.
ASTRINGENT: a drying sensation often associated with unripe fruit and the presence of tannins. Think black tea, red wine, pomegranate, juniper.
PERCEIVED TEMPERATURE: I’ve lumped false perception of hot and cold together here. This is the spiciness or heat our nerves perceive when eating things like chiles and black pepper, or the cooling sensation we get from mint.
When creating a cocktail recipe, we know balance of flavors is key. But when we understand the different categories of flavor and how they can balance or enhance one another, we can create a delicious and well-balanced cocktail much more quickly than the old trial and error by guesswork method. Let’s dive into the flavor math!
As general rules of thumb:
SWEET enhances SALTY
SALTY enhances SWEET
SOUR enhances UMAMI (and also SALTY)
When flavors are enhanced, they’re made more prominent or boosted. Think of how flavorful authentic tacos are with a squeeze of lime, or fish with a squeeze of lemon. Imagine a perfectly balanced margarita with a salt rim (or a pinch of salt added directly to the shaker). That little pinch amplifies the flavors of the drink, making them more pronounced, and quite frankly, more delicious!
