Let’s take a second and zoom out to look at the whole scope of bar drinkware. In general, drinkware intended for alcohol consumption is typically designed to enhance the alcohol it holds and not simply be a vessel for an elixir that will shepard you to a land of headaches and regret. See, different glasses serve different functions with most being designed to enhance the way the aromas are funneled into our olfactory sensory neurons in our nasal cavity. These neurons are equipped with receptors that are stimulated when we breathe in molecules that are released by things all around us. The odorant will travel into the olfactory epithelium, located in the nasal cavity, dissolve in the mucus and tether itself to the olfactory receptors. This stimulates the receptors which then will send a message to our brain. Your brain will interpret this message and wham o, you know you’re smelling chorizo tacos.
Now, there are two routes that odorants can take to reach the receptors. The obvious one? Through the nostrils. The not so obvious one is your mouth. Molecules travel into your mouth by breathing, drinking or eating and once there chewing and/or swallowing helps to spread these molecules about where they travel through the Nasopharynx, which is a channel that connects the throat to the nasal cavity. When you get a stuffy nose from catching the flu or a cold, this second pathway becomes blocked up, limiting the ability of odorants to bind with the receptors and thus hampering your sense of taste.
Although smell and taste are intrinsically linked, they are in fact, two distinct senses that coalesce to create the perception of flavor. And the type of glass used can help to facilitate this experience. Be it by funneling aromas or be it by laser etching inside the bottom of the glass to aid in nucleation (we’ll get into this on down the line).
Over the course of the next few week’s we’ll take a look at some of the different styles of glasses, how their designs aid in the beer drinking experience and we’ll see if they actually do make beer taste better.
Komentáře