February 8, 2016

Hey Chicago! Become an expert on the aromas of Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskeys in a Single Day

Chicago gets first crack at Aroma Academy training that has enhanced the careers of thousands of drinks professionals in Europe and the Far East. This training has been offered nowhere else in North America.

We’re doing a special, one-day overview of the world’s great whiskeys led by Kim Lahiri, the head of Aroma Academy’s training in the United Kingdom. You’ll learn to identify and articulate the aromas that combine into the nose of fine Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish whiskeys.

No matter how many tastings you’ve attended, until you’ve been trained to identify the aromas that combine into the nose of fine spirits, you’ll never fully understand what’s in the glass. Those aromas make up 95% of what is perceived as flavor.

We’ll start the day building your understanding of how aromatics works: how humans perceive smell; how differences in production techniques, environment, and tradition influence the spirit’s nose; and how an individual’s subjective olfactory experience can be translated into a common language understandable to all.

When you’re done, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of how a whiskey (or whisky) will be perceived both on its own and in the context of a cocktail.

Join us Monday, February 22, at The Chicago Distilling Company. Seating is limited. Lunch will be served.

January 12, 2016

Barrel-Aged Whiskey is Chemistry Class With a Kick

Tom Johnson Science

In his book, Proof: The Science of Booze, author Adam Rogers summarizes the effect of barrel-aging on whiskey:

Barrels full of booze are exciting places, chemically speaking. Of the structural components of wood, cellulose and hemicellulose are giant chains of repeating glucose molecules, and the heat of coopering breaks those into sugars—glucose, hexose, and pentose. But the third major component, lignin, is different. It’s a massive molecule, too, but with nonrepeating subunits. About half of them are vanillin (vanilla flavored), and the rest is barbecue-flavored guaiacyl, clove-flavored eugenol, and syringaldehyde. At high heat, the spicy aromatic aldehydes in the lignin undergo Maillard reactions and yield the same flavors as browned meat. When it’s hot outside, pores in the wood open up and the liquid moves inside, slurping up the tannins and other molecules that come from lignin decomposition. And the ethanol makes all those chemicals react with each other. The aldehydes mix with the acids and form fruity, tart esters.

All that activity is why it’s wise to add a couple of ice cubes. It kind of cools everything down.

January 7, 2016

Bourbon Aromatics, Demonstrated

Tom Johnson Blog

There are 24 key aromas to be found in fine Bourbon. Our self-study kit introduces them to you one at a time. We give you a precise vocabulary to describe what you’re smelling. And when you’re done, you’ll be able to pick those individual aromas out of a complex whiskey the way you pick a familiar face out of a crowd.

Aroma Academy has trained thousands of drinks professionals in Great Britain and other countries. We’ve produced tutorials in Irish and Scotch whisky, in gin, in red and white wine. Now that Bourbon has taken its rightful place among the world’s fine spirits, we’ve developed a program for America’s definitive whiskey.

As a method of personal improvement or a good excuse to invite friends over for a night of memorable Bourbon, our Aroma Academy training kit is unmatched. There’s nothing like it.

January 4, 2016

Using Visualization to Improve Your Sense of Smell

Tom Johnson Blog, Science

Gin Kit Sample Bottles Cropped Athletes spend time picturing what they’re going to do, whether it’s kicking a ball through uprights or flipping backwards off a balance beam. Now researchers have determined that the same techniques can be used to improve the sense of smell. The study, published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, worked like this:

“Novices, undergraduate enology students (intermediates) and wine experts were asked to repeatedly imagine the visual images or smells of odorant sources presented in picture form. Olfactory abilities, odor sensitivity and identification performance were compared before and after mental training to check the differential effects of the two types of sensory training. We demonstrated that, like repeated objective odorant stimulations, repeated imagination of odors was able to enhance olfactory performance in objective perception.”

There were exceptions, of course. The technique seemed to work best with people who had already been serious about analysis of aromatics — wine experts, mostly. The improvements in sensitivity faded over time, if the exercises didn’t continue. And, most interestingly, the effect was considerably less on subtle aromas. Leslie Willoughby, writing at Science, says:

“This may be due to differing degrees of difficulty for creating a mental image for different odors and may call for basic training in how to form a mental image of elusive scents. “

Now, we don’t mean to brag, but that’s what Aroma Academy training does. So we liked the study’s conclusion:

“The findings demonstrated that olfactory mental imagery was able to modify olfactory capabilities of wine professionals, with results comparable to those obtained using perceptual training. Consequently, olfactory mental imagery is an excellent tool for training the olfactory capacities of panelists, and may be extended to perfumers, flavorists and tasting panelists with a view to improving product quality control, without material stimulus such as chemical supports.”

Yup. That’s what we do.

December 16, 2015

New Bourbon Training Gets Rave Review

Tom Johnson Blog, Input

We premiered our new Bourbon training a few weeks ago in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We ran the Bar 145 crew through the introductory course, and then provided some aromatic insight during a Bourbon dinner a couple of weeks later.

Here’s what Shelby Minnix, their beverage manager, had to say:

As a bartender and beverage manager, education of my staff is priority. With over 70 Whiskeys on our shelf, it is critical for the bartenders and servers to not only be knowledgeable of them, but to be able to introduce and describe them to our guests. By having the Aroma Academy implement their training program at Bar145, our staff members have become more confident with our products and our new guests become loyal patrons.

Consumers of high end spirits and wine are continually being introduced to new products. Retailers, brand ambassadors, and bartenders are equally being challenged to differentiate these new products. The training Aroma Academy conducted with my staff bridged the gap between taste and aromatics, providing a common vocabulary that is understandable by both casual consumers and connoisseurs. Individuals within the beverage industry that are able to educate and direct consumers to products they are seeking create customer loyalty to their establishment.

We blush.

December 10, 2015

Bombay Sapphire’s Gin Aroma Kit

Tom Johnson Wisdom

A while back, Aroma Academy produced a customized aroma kit that Bombay Sapphire used to illustrate the difference between their gin and everyone else’s. Hunting around the web, we came across this account of an encounter with the kit in the real world (emphasis added):

The ‘Kit’ billed as ‘Your route to expertise in Gin’ comprises 24 different aromas associated with the spirit – and most intriguingly isolates four different juniper types: Juniper with the pine note emphasised; with the green note emphasised, with the herbaceous-waxy note emphasised and with the woody resinous note. As juniper is the backbone and always present in gin – this is something of a breakthrough. The Kit reinforces the importance of that other key botanical namely coriander – it’s particularly noted in Bombay Sapphire, which was a deliberate attempt at the time to move away from the juniper-heavy aromas which dominated the gin scene in the 70s and early 80s.

So there it is: complexity simplified for the sake of understanding. It’s what we do. The coriander that might get lost beneath the “juniper backbone” is highlighted by Aroma Academy’s kit. Product differentiation accomplished!

Gin kit here.

December 7, 2015

Real Bourbon Bars Train Their Staffs

Tom Johnson Wisdom

Bourbon Yoda Michael Veach says there’s more to being a “Bourbon bar” than serving a variety of Bourbons. The key, he says, is staff training:

The staff should know what a bourbon is and why it is different from Canadian, Tennessee or rye whiskeys. The staff should be able to make recommendations based upon what the customer normally drinks, whether that is bourbon, wine, beer or cocktails. The staff should be able to tell the customer what Bottled-in-Bond bourbon is and why it is different from other bourbons. The same should hold true for other styles such as single barrel, small batch, wheated or high-rye bourbons.

We couldn’t agree more. The ability to guide a customer through the wide variety of Bourbon’s to the right whiskey is as core to being a Bourbon bar as having a decent sommelier is to being serious about wine. The understanding of Bourbon styles is based primarily on the sense of smell, which is something we know a little about.

December 4, 2015

The Gentle Zen of Fermenting Corn

Tom Johnson Blog, Images

November 18, 2015

OK, It’s Only Sort of Pappy Van Winkle, but Still…

Tom Johnson Blog Bourbon, mixology

With lines forming for the new Pappy release and bottles hiding beneath counters for most-favored customers, we thought we’d point something out: We can recreate the nose of Pappy using our aroma strips.

We know: it’s not the same thing. But it’s kind of cool anyway.

Here’s the recipe: dip two vanilla strips and one each of oak, leather, brown spice, maple, and the earthy aroma. Some would argue there needs to be a floral element, too, so go wild — though maybe not dip the strip all the way into the floral essence. Half-a-dip will do.

Let the strips air out for a few seconds so the alcohol evaporates, and then wave them a few inches beneath your nose. Inhale short, sharp breaths.

There it is, the essence of Pappy without any of the fun. And the downside is the aromas will get your mouth watering, but there’s no actual Pappy to drink.

What a shame.

November 17, 2015

There are 24 key aromas to be found in fine Bourbon. Our self-study kit introduces them to you one at a time.

Tom Johnson Blog

As a method of personal improvement or a good excuse to invite friends over for a night of memorable Bourbon, our Aroma Academy training kit is unmatched. There’s nothing like it.

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