SCIENCE OF SPIRITS

The late 1700s:

Sherry trade flourishes. Spanish copita becomes the “dock glass” for merchants to verify the quality of sherry on the wharf. Hogsheads arrive in Great Britain for bottling, branding, and resale worldwide. Sherry is the preferred drink of the upper/ middle class and the libation of choice for social gatherings. Tulip is also adopted for nonfortified table wines.

Scotch distillers promote tulips for three reasons. First, the size is small enough to hold an ample serving of high-ABV spirits— about 1½ ounces. Secondly, it was an existing design, so no new product was necessary. Lastly, since sherry and wine drinkers have them, glassware shortage or acceptance is not a barrier to scotch sales. Scotch achieves popularity worldwide as a “deal-sealer drink” in business as well as a status symbol for the well-to-do. Scotch is so popular that distillers in India, Japan, the United States, and many other countries try to recreate it, concurrently adopting tulips as their preferred glass.

The 1960s:

Scotch distillers recognize Americans aren’t acclimated to drinking spirits straight, with no mixers, ice, or water. Prohibition had unleashed a black market of illegal, dangerous, incompetent distiller products upon the population. The cocktail was born, using fruit juice, ice, water, and soda, to hide foul head and tail cuts and disguise poisonous compounds. The American attitude toward drinking straight spirits was “unrefined, skid-row bum, and dangerous” and had developed a strong aversion to pungent ethanol.

The European/United Kingdom nose traveled a different path. Bars had no ice, cocktails were never a necessity, and straight spirit consumption was a way of life, as was the accepted tiny-rim tulip. As scotch marketers realize pungent ethanol was a barrier to American scotch sales, procedures are taught to acclimate to tulipconcentrated ethanol. This includes:

• Don’t swirl

• Breathe through mouth and nose simultaneously

• Add a little water

• Don’t smell ortho-nasally

• Repeatedly waft aromas toward the nose as glass approaches to acclimate.

These efforts pay off as scotch and tulips gain acceptability.

1977:

The International Standards Organization issues ISO 3591 Standard - Sensory Analysis Apparatus – Wine Tasting Glass. Nearly an exact copita copy; it’s the only drinking vessel standardized by ISO. Manufacturers, noting the similarity to the well-known scotch copita, decide to twist the application to improve sales and name it the ISO whiskey glass. WSET, the International Court of Sommeliers, and many sommelier training programs mistakenly designate their recommended spirits tasting glass as an ISO whiskey glass. Not a single “peep” or correction from ISO is heard.

1980-Present:

Glassmakers attempt to penetrate markets with fresh whisky glass styling, yet changes are minor. Bowl heights and diameters remain similar to copita for fear of rejection by the spirits industry or consumers. Blindfolded, no one can discern aroma delivery differences between common tulip styles; all concentrate pungent, nose-numbing ethanol. Scotch drinkers everywhere favor tulips because distillers’ blenders (the professionals) use them.

2001: Raymond Davidson, in a stroke of marketing genius, introduces the Glencairn tulip derivative, endorsed by master blenders of the five largest whisky companies in Scotland, and wins the Queen’s Award for International Enterprise.

2023 State of the Art:

Glencairn is now the iconic identity badge and embodiment of tradition for whisk(e)y drinkers globally, quickly becoming popular for other spirits. Glencairn is a superb textbook example of well-executed marketing, resulting in overwhelming worldwide acceptance.

George F Manska

George F Manska, CR&D, Arsilica, Inc., is a published sensory science researcher, and entrepreneur. BSME, NEAT glass coinventors with a mission to replace myths and misinformation with scientific truth.

Contact George: george@arsilica.com 702.332.7305.

Scientific research doesn’t find its way into commercial product design easily or rapidly. The closed scientific journal community continually discovers/ publishes new information. The sensory science field has expanded rapidly in the last 20 years, yet scientific aspects of how we smell, taste, and process flavors are slowly coming to light. As sensory science is recognized, necessary changes become apparent.

Tulip Science Prior to Sensory Science:

“Science” is invented to fit a tulip shape. Difficult questions create hasty, over-simplified answers.

Why are tulip rims so small?

Small rims collect all aromas so none can escape detection. NOTE: 40 percent and over of all molecules at the tulip’s rim are pungent, nose-numbing ethanol.

Why is it so pungent?

Ethanol can’t be separated; live with it; drinking procedures help to get used to it.

Whiskey drinkers “drink and know things” after decades of worldwide tulip use. Many false yet commonly accepted beliefs pull us down a path to risky and unhealthy social attitudes. In Part 2, we explore ethanol's effects on the sense of smell and common social perceptions.