Health Issue: Vodka's taste secret?

Vodka's taste secret? It's all chemistry

Moscow: Ever wondered why some people prefer one brand of vodka over anothe although all are colourless and tasteless? Scientists say the hgh-end liquor's popularity may rely upon its internal chemical structure.

         Theoretically, all vodka brands should have the same faint or under tectable taste as the liquor represents  a solution of 40% pure ethanol and 60% pure water. But the popularity of some premium vodka brands in recent years has puzzled scientists.

         Researchers at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio teamed up with their counterparts at Moscow State University to find out what actually increases a brand's appeal.

         The team analysed the composition of five popular vodka brands and found that each had different concentrations of certain clusters of molecules, called ethanol hydrates.

             They found that brand preference essentially translates into a preference for a certain distribution of these molecular clusters within the liquor.

         Vodka brands with a higher preparation of water molecule clusters may be perceived as watery. By contrast, other vodka brands had more cage-like clusters of ethanol molecules surrounded by water molecules, they found.

        The researchers found that vodka's 40% alcohol content strikes a balance where neither the pure water nor pure alcohol molecular clusters dominate, Instead, the cage like structures of ethanol and water represent the most common clusters by far.