“About 80 percent of what we consider flavor comes from what we smell,” said Mandy Naglich, taste and beverage expert, author of How to Taste, and creator of @drinkswithmandy.
Without our sense of smell, our sense of taste is limited to only five things: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Every other flavor—the fresh tartness of a strawberry, the saline bite of an olive—comes from our sense of smell, and more specifically, our olfactory receptors.
Located in the nasal cavity, these receptors are the key to flavor. They detect tens of thousands of different volatile organic compounds—the aromas that tell your brain that you’re not just eating something sweet—you’re eating a strawberry. Knowing this should change how you build and serve cocktails.
Because if you’re only focusing on what hits the customer’s tongue, you’re ignoring the vast majority of the tasting experience. So how do you harness the sense of smell in your cocktails? Use aromatic vapor.
This garnishing technique is found in high-end cocktail bars across the world. Anything from a small spritz from an atomizer to a cloudy bubble of vapor can transform a cocktail into a multi-dimensional experience that evolves as the customer drinks.
Finishing a cocktail with an aromatic mist is like curating its first impression. That aroma envelops the customer in a fragrant cloud before the drink ever hits their palate, priming them for a flavorful experience.
“It’s not just to look cool,” Naglich said. “It actually adds a whole extra layer of flavor that you don’t have anywhere else in the drink.”
Take the Big Poppa cocktail from Saikindō, a barlocated in the Four Seasons Abu Dhabi. The drink playfully manipulates the drinker’s expectations. It features Casa Lotos infused with wasabi, Campari, a homemade three-tomato dashi, and yuzu white chocolate. But before you taste any of that, you smell its garnish: vanilla vapor.
“Vanilla is a really familiar, really comforting scent,” noted Naglich. “For the first couple of sips, you’re getting this big puff of vanilla. Immediately you’re like, ‘Oh, I recognize this. I feel comfortable here.'” As the vanilla dissipates, the savory, umami notes of the tomato and wasabi come to the forefront. While some customers might be scared to try a wasabi cocktail, the vanilla acts as a safe, welcoming bridge to the cocktail’s more unique flavors.
At Giacosa 1815 in Florence—the bar where the Negroni was originally invented—they serve their namesake classic topped with an orange vapor rather than a standard orange peel.
Adding aroma to the cocktail helps you fine-tune a customer’s experience of its flavor, without actually altering the balance of the cocktail itself.
“Whereas an orange peel garnish would infuse into the drink as you drink it,” Naglich said, “with the vapor, you’re getting that first little impression of citrus instead of a slowly infused orange cocktail.”
Giacosa also pushes boundaries with its version of a piña colada, which is garnished with sunscreen-smelling vapor. “You don’t want to drink a sunscreen cocktail,” Naglich laughed. “But just that little aroma puts you in the mood of like, ‘Oh, I feel summery, I feel outdoorsy.'” And since the vapor is, well, vapor, it dissipates after a few moments, giving the cocktail a grand entrance and evoking warm, sunny days for the customer.
The members-only Dr. Stravinsky Parfumerie in Barcelona takes it one step further. There, you don’t just order a cocktail; you also select from different aroma options to pair with the cocktail. This can totally transform the tasting experience and allow customers to personalize their drinks. There, you can amplify a daiquiri with lime aroma, or contrast it with a floral aroma. These aromas don’t just add to the sensory experience—they let you customize a cocktail without needing to stock expensive, perishable garnishes.
Similar to how a wine changes flavor as it breathes and warms in the glass, a cocktail can be a dynamic journey. A guest could start their drink with one aromatic vapor, and halfway through, introduce a completely different atomizer to shift the flavor profile of the drink.
Atomizers are the easiest, most accessible option for both high-volume bars and home bartenders. Hoste, which produces premium ready-to-drink cocktails, packages its bottles with small atomizers which look like small perfume samples. Their mezcal negroni, made in collaboration with bartender Pablo Jiménez, is made with tamarind liqueur and mole bitters and comes with an orange zest atomizer. It requires zero prep work—just chill the bottle, pour into a glass over an ice cube, and give the drink a quick spritz.
Cocktail bars can also invest in a Flavor Blaster gun, which can top a cocktail with a smoke-filled, aromatic bubble. “When the bubble is popped,” Naglich said, “the vapor will give you that pure hit of aroma.” It also makes for quite a show.
Whether it is a comforting cloud of vanilla, an evocative hit of summer sunscreen, or a fresh spritz of orange zest, adding aromatic vapor does far more than offer a photo-op. It’s a science-backed method for making your cocktails even more flavorful.
