About This Project

This is an article on taste science written by James, our resident Bar40 food scientist. The purpose of this article is to give a strong scientific background in how humans perceive flavour and to gain an understanding of how flavours can mesh together.

Use this article as a tool, just like how you use Bar40 Bitters as a tool, to create purpose behind your cocktails.

The Bliss Point

For years food scientists have been formulating products with a specific goal – to gain loyal followers to their products by creating a food people not only enjoy eating but crave.

This led to a domino effect within the food industry; products slowly had an increasing amount of sugars, fats, and salts.

Almost every food we crave from chocolate,  chips or even chocolate chips will generally contain at least two of these three factors while some foods contain all three as they are a primal need.  Of course there is always a threshold that is accounted for as to not have one overpowering taste but it’s not just a matter of having sugar, fat, and salt content all right below this threshold.

Food scientists heavily rely on the balance of flavours, aromas, and mouthfeel to create something known as the bliss point. The bliss point is a unique balance that targets the general populations taste preferences – triggering memories, focusing on primal needs, subconsciously and hormonally creating a longing for the food, a certain “Je ne sais quoi” have you. Take Heinz ketchup for example, there are many ketchup manufacturers but none produce a resembling product. Heinz mastered their ketchup formulation leading to a large band of loyal followers. The same can be said of Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Frito-Lay etc. when developing products, hundreds of prototypes if not more are created each with slight variations of a formula which are tested by sensory panels and data is analyzed to find the bliss point.
 
 
I once worked for a company manufacturing juices and beverages where we had the task of manufacturing a low cost orange drink. Of course it wasn’t as simple as combining water with sugar, flavour, and colour, as there were dozens of different orange flavourings and colours available not to mention the watery mouthfeel that needed to be addressed.  No matter how flavourful the beverage was if there was no viscosity to it, it’ll always taste watered down or lack any substance. Thus combinations of fresh juices, gums, and sugars were used to thicken the beverage giving us a final product. But even then we made numerous variations containing different amounts and types of flavours, juices, gums, sugars, and colours to get to the final product.

Balancing Cocktails

The same can be said of Bar40 bitters, they were designed and formulated to help cocktails get to that next level and reach the bliss point creating a perfect balance of flavours, whether that be using just one or a combination of to slightly change the ratio of bitter, sour, sweet, salty, and/or umami present .
 
 
A simple balance can be done with Bar40 Bitters by the addition of sweet and sour, while salty, umami, and bitter all have the capability of altering perceived texture while still adding a complexity of flavours to round out the taste spectrum. This can impart a wave of flavours with different notes coming through as you drink and a lingering taste that leaves you wanting more. By combining two of these flavours (i.e. sweet and salty), were not just accentuating one dimension of the cocktail but the two components add dimension. Sweet and salty is a popular combination as both flavour profiles can be overpowering but when mixed together a balance is achieved, cutting back on sweetness with the lingering salty taste leaving you wanting more. At the same time the combination of flavours is also balancing the already flavours present in the cocktail, as well as altering the perceived mouthfeel and timing of tastes making every sip like a rollercoaster ride of sensations.

Here are some suggestions when balancing cocktails using Bar40 Bitters:
 

• A sweet cocktail can be complimented by the addition of the sour and/or salt bitters, and depending on the preference for the cocktail, umami bitters could be used to bring out the sweetness while adding body.

• The bite from a sour cocktail can be rounded by the use of sweet and/or umami bitters while the salt bitters compliment the sour and add a perceived sweetness to the drink at hand.

• Salty cocktails can be a huge hit when balanced right. To elevate a salty cocktail sweet bitters can be used to compliment the salt in the cocktail and will enhance the sweetness of the bitters. If there is too much salt, sour bitters can help to supress it or the addition of umami to keep the cocktail grounded yet brings out earthy flavours to compliment the salt.

• Depending on the flavours present a strong cocktail can use any of the four bitters as each will make for a smoother sip. Sweet bitters can be used not to sweeten the drink but to easily heighten the flavour already present. While a combination of bitters can add depth without muddling the intended flavour, bearing in mind that less can be more.

 
As with everything behind the bar there are no restrictions, the world is your oyster. As seen in the industry although achieving a bliss point is not a simple feat, it isn’t impossible but a matter of perfecting the ratio of flavours all the way through.
Next time you enjoy your favourite cocktail, start to notice the flavours present within it. Which of the five taste perceptions do you notice as you drink it?