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Fancy a cold one? Chinese scientists have found a very good reason why beer tastes better ice cold
- Chinese scientists have found a link between the molecular structure of ethanol and the alcohol concentrations in different drinks
- They also found that changing a drink’s temperature affects its ‘ethanol-like’ taste profiles, which is why beer tastes better cold
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When we go out for a drink, most of us will have a regular order – maybe an ice cold beer, a room temperature whisky or even a warmed baijiu.
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But the choice of our favourite tipple – and the temperature it is served at – might come down to more than simply habit. There is a reason why beer tastes better cold, for example, with a new Chinese study finding that the unique molecular properties of alcohol also have something to do with it.
In a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Matter earlier this month, the team of scientists found a correlation between properties of ethanol-water concentrations and the alcohol volumes of different popular drinks.
When examining ethanol-water mixtures at different concentrations, they found that molecular clusters experienced structural transitions at certain ethanol percentages – and this corresponded to the ranges seen across alcoholic beverages.
Also, when looking at the impact of temperature on these ethanol-water mixtures, the researchers found that the structural transitions were impacted, changing their “ethanol-like” taste profiles.
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“Our work proves that the alcohol content distribution and proper drinking temperature for different alcoholic beverages are not based on experience, but on scientific explanations of molecular ethanol-water clusters in solutions,” the team wrote.
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