Say, Whatcha Drinkin'?

What is "mouthfeel", and why is it so important?
Mouthfeel is a term used to discuss the physical and chemical interaction of a food or liquid with the mouth. What makes mouthfeel important is how dramatically it can cause a person to react to a food or drink, despite the taste. To explore this concept and how it relates to being a Barista, we put ourselves to the test!

We removed our senses of sight and smell by wearing a blindfold and plugging our noses to isolate our sense of feel in the mouth. On our tasting table we had a variety of liquids, all pretty standard things for a person to drink: Sparkling water, two different flavors of Fizzy Lizzy, tap water, filtered coffee, and unfiltered coffee (both samples were our Rwanda Remera, cooled). And the milks: Whole, skim, soy, chocolate, and half and half!

To maintain experimental consistency, we poured each liquid into identical glasses before starting. By doing this we removed any chance of sound association (container being opened/pouring) interfering with a guess.

Time to start sipping and guessing!
We took turns running the experiment and wearing the blindfold, being sure to rotate the order in which each sample was tasted to ensure an unbiased guess!

It was easy enough to tell our carbonated drinks by their crisp, bubbly texture that nips at the tongue.
(Mineral water left, Tap water right/)

It was also not very difficult to recognize the presence of sugar in a liquid, like in chocolate milk for example. Although this did not taste like chocolate milk, it was noticeably sweet. So even though my mouth could not taste specific things with out the help of the nose, it could recognize sugar!

Having no present flavor, milk was something we had to judge solely on its texture, or "weight" in the mouth. Skim milk ( pictured on the left), felt very thin and cool in the mouth, seeming to have little substance. Where with half and half (right), felt heavy and thick, almost syrupy!
In all honesty, with no taste, the mouthfeel of milk was very unpleasant! Very slimy!

Next up we tried two different coffees, our Sumatra Iskandar and Mocha Java next to each other. Since these two coffees are so different in taste, we expected to see that come through in this experiment, however this was not the case! Without the aid of our noses we couldn't taste any difference at all! Noses are important folks!

Finally, we sampled filtered coffee next to unfiltered coffee. For the filtered coffee we used a Clever Dripper, and for the unfiltered a French Press.

Telling the two apart was much easier than expected. As you can see, the filtered coffee (left) is clear and clean, producing a very delicate and subtle mouthfeel. While the unfiltered coffee (right) is very cloudy, being full of suspended solids and oils which fall heavy, saturating the tongue.

Why is this?
When passing through a paper filter much of the oil in a coffee is trapped in the paper, making for a clean, crisp cup of coffee. While a metal screen, such as in a French Press, will allow these oils and particles pass through, creating a stronger and thicker cup.

The sediment difference can be very clearly seen by what is left in the bottom of your cup. Unfiltered (left), Filtered (right)

Though the two are quite different in some ways, they are similar in being delicious!
Perhaps a light, crisp, but invigorating cup of filtered coffee (left) on a warm summer evening? And a full bodied, rich mug of unfiltered coffee (right) for that chilly winter morning? MMmmmmm!
Anyways, I digress...

All in all, this was a very fun and interesting Lab! Taking the time to focus on the idea of mouthfeel pushed us to see whole new sides to liquids that some of us have been drinking for years! Add to this building new vocabulary and ideas on how to talk about a beverage, which as we know, is what a Barista does most!
Try this Lab at home, it's so simple!