For me, the things I find most suited to the impression I have. Rosemary smells cold, and Fernet Blanca tastes cold even at room temperature. If the scent has rosemary, is Fernett a good match now? Some of the neuroscience things I read show that these more abstract ideas are represented by the same kind of neural firing patterns. At first I was hesitant. It’s cold and cold, and it doesn’t feel fulfilling for me. But then I read a little more and realized that there is some science behind it, which has become more intriguing lately.
Ars Technica: I come up with a surprising combination of flavours like a drink that combines blueberries and horseradish.
Kevin Peterson: It was a menu hit. I often give people a bit of blueberries, then a bit of horseradish tincture, and they say, “Yeah, I don’t like this.” And I serve them cocktails, and they say, “Oh, it actually worked. I can’t believe it.” Some of the beauty is, at least not very good on my own, probably really awful, then I mix them all together, somehow it’s nice. It’s basically alchemy.
Ars Technica: The harmony of aroma and cocktail is one thing, but we also talk about constructive interference to achieve surprising, unexpected, yet still enjoyable results.
Kevin Peterson: The opposite is destructive interference, and there is too much going on there. Sometimes it happens when I come up with a drink, I add more, but the impression of the flavor is down. It’s a kind of strange flavor nonlinearity, sometimes 2 plus 2 equals 4, sometimes 3, sometimes 17.
Often, I think at the end of my shift drink, “Oh, I put this new bottle in it. I’ll try it with a Negroni variation.” Then I lose the truck, finish the mop, then I take a sip, and then I say, “What? That little spark, or the combo that creates it, is often the first step in a journey to new cocktail development.
