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> Alcohol by itself is tasteless though. There seems to be disagreement over this. To me, alcoholic beverages have a distinctive taste in common (stronger in
by retsibsi 3y ago
> Alcohol by itself is tasteless though.
There seems to be disagreement over this.
To me, alcoholic beverages have a distinctive taste in common (stronger in spirits and weaker in beer or wine), which I always assumed was the taste of the alcohol itself.
Some sources describe pure ethanol as 'tasteless', albeit strongly odoured; if this is true, then I guess what I interpret as a taste is really the combination of the smell & the burning sensation.
But other sources describe it as having a taste -- e.g. CAMEO Chemicals (via PubChem) says ethanol has a 'pungent taste', and a paper I find when googling says 10% ethanol tastes bitter to everyone and sweet to some (and I know that's not exactly alcohol 'by itself' but they do attribute the taste to the ethanol).
- Aeolun 3y agoI think if something has a strong smell it by definition has a strong taste? Most of what you taste is the smell. If you close your nose a lot of food becomes quite tasteless.
- tharkun__ 3y agoAnd yet coffee smells awesome but the taste is nothing like it. Not that it's tasteless but it's definitely very different.
- mr_toad 3y agoCoffee contains many alkaloids (including caffeine), which are quite bitter but have little or no odour. Alcohol on the other hand has a very strong odour.