Mouthfeel
Creamy or Astringent? And what makes for a good mouthfeel.
It can be hard to put your finger on what you didn’t like about a specific cocktail you’ve had in the last year. Too sweet? Too salty? Or maybe you just didn’t like the flavor itself? It’s easy to use these characteristics when thinking about why you like or don’t like a drink, but often the texture or “mouthfeel” is the culprit. This was the case for me when sampling a Rye Whiskey Mule recently from a Mid-west distillery. At first sip, the flavors seemed decent, but as I let the beverage sit on my tongue, the experience changed to a drying sensation, leaving my tongue feeling dehydrated and with an off-flavor vapor in my mouth. Nasty. A quick scan of the ingredients on the package revealed the likely culprit: the addition of “neutral spirits” to the Rye Whiskey. Check out Liam’s post on Industry Terminology for a bit more info on what neutral spirits are.
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The Sensation
Neutral spirits are not inherently bad, and they in fact are the base for most of your favorite alcohols, but when poorly produced they can ruin your cocktail. The experience itself ranges from a creamy to astringent sensation, with one side of the spectrum with a thick liquid coating your tongue, and the other with a thin feeling liquid leaving it to feel dry or dehydrated. The difference between Skim, 2% & Whole Milk is probably one of the most accessible examples of the range of mouthfeel in a single type of beverage. Although thankfully, Skim Milk stops well short of being an astringent.
Photo by pexels.com
Photo by pexels.com
The Cause
To carry on with the Milk example, it offers a great corollary for our topic of spirits. While Ethanol is the primary molecule that separates your beverage from that of your teetotaling neighbors, it makes up a small percent by volume of the finished product. Even a smaller percentage (~2% at bottle strength) is made up of the core substrate used for fermentation such as corn, potato, or even whey! When you consider the difference between 2% & 4% Milk, you can appreciate how 2% can impact your spirits as well. When developing our cocktails, we chose potato vodka as the spirit base after sampling other vodkas made with wheat or corn because of the thicker mouthfeel the potato spirit gave.
The ingredient that makes up the largest portion of your cocktail, and most bottle strength spirits, water, can also have a major impact on mouthfeel. With water occupying a narrow band in the middle of the mouthfeel spectrum, mineral waters generally provide a thicker mouthfeel, while distilled and reverse osmosis water give a thinner mouthfeel. Although it is such a large component of the cocktail or spirit, water is never defined as giving a creamy or astringent sensation such as you would get from the spirit base itself.
Finally, something some distillers use to thicken the texture is glycerine. This tends to be a polarizing argument in the distilling world, as it's something that is seen as unnecessary or cosmetic to some. We find ourselves in that camp, and prefer not to use additives to alter a spirit when the same thing can be achieved through the right substrate choice, and proper distillation techniques, such as being more selective of what you use as the “hearts” of your distillate. Again, I recommend reading Liam’s post on Industry Terminology to better understand what we’re talking about regarding hearts vs heads & tails.
Photo by The Spruce Eats
What to look for
The right amount of thick or thin mouthfeel ends up being very subjective, so we recommend trying a few different types of spirit base to find out what you like best. As far as water goes, a fun way to see the impact it has is to use carbonated mineral water as an alternative to regular soda water the next time you make your favorite cocktail.
Head to your nearest Utah State Liquor Store to experience the premium potato spirits and unique mouthfeel of Simplicity today.
