Mixing gold ions into whiskey can reveal its flavor
Mixing gold ions into whiskey can reveal its flavor
Whiskey is usually aged in charred, wooden casks for years, allowing it to gradually absorb flavors from the wood.
Researchers have shown how swirling gold ions into a whiskey can show the agedness of the liquor. The method can provide a quick and inexpensive test for whiskey agedness.
William Peveler, a chemist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, says that a tiny amount of gold gives you a bright, strong, red or blue, or purple color.
. Laboratory tests can measure agedness by checking whiskeys for chemicals called congeners, which are absorbed from wood, but they can be expensive.
Past research has shown that various chemicals, from neurotransmitters to poor-tasting compounds in maple syrup, could cause gold ions to build up in a solution. Peveler and colleagues mixed solutions that contained less than a dime of gold into different whiskey blends.
Whiskey congeners caused the ion to form nanoparticles in minutes. The shape and size of the nanoparticles affected the appearance of the spirits.
The researchers plan to further investigate how gold nanoparticles grow alongside alcohols and sugars in whiskeys to develop an even more comprehensive test for agedness.