Water in whisky question finally solved! Cheers for that – Scotsman comment

Do you prefer your whisky neat? How about some ice or a splash of water?

Among aficionados, there have been debates for probably centuries about the best way to enjoy Scotland’s national drink. However, new research has settled one question: there’s definitely such a thing as too much water.

Scientists discovered that if whisky is diluted too much, it becomes difficult to tell the different kinds apart, with only the most discerning of palates able to spot the difference between a single-malt Scotch and an American bourbon. In our experience, this is not normally a problem, given, shall we say, their sharply contrasting flavours (whisky is nice, not so sure about bourbon, but maybe it’s an acquired taste).

Researcher Tom Collins, a Washington State University assistant professor, whose work with gin we also hope to hear about, explained: “If you want to enjoy a specific whisky, this suggests that you don't want to dilute it by more than about 20 per cent. By the time you get to 60/40 whisky to water, the whiskies are not differentiated by the panellists – they begin to smell the same, and that's not really what you're looking for.” Well quite, although it may give some people ideas about how to pass off a cheap supermarket brand as “the good stuff” when the in-laws, for example, come round to stay.

This is the kind of practical science we can all appreciate. So let’s raise a glass to Tom and his expert panellists and congratulate them on a job well done (and for managing to write down their findings at the end of what were, we hope, some most-pleasurable experiments).