‘Psychophysics suggests humans have physiological limitations in perceptual ability and can identify no more than three or four flavours notes in mixtures’ (1) demonstrating the need for spirits to go back to simplified flavoured palettes. The alcohol industry has come leaps and bounds over the centuries; however, recently distilleries and makers have started to deviate from dumping a ton of artificial flavours into batches and have started to focus on the flavour that is already present. They have developed and emphasised high quality sourced ingredients and taken care when bringing out all the natural flavours and aromas. 

Take whisky as a case study. We are now in the ‘golden era of whisky’ where drinkers are more interested in the provenance of their drinks and their ingredients – hence the rise in premium products. ‘Palates have become more sophisticated as a result of a burgeoning gin market, which introduced us to a variety of flavours and botanicals. The whisky bar world is becoming more accessible, too, in how they advertise their bottles and engage with their customers’ (2) as well as cocktails which played a key role in the rebirth of whisky with neater styled, whisky-led drinks are becoming more prominent as the quality of the spirit has increased.