For example, I’ve heard bourbon is sweeter than other whiskies because it’s made from corn, rhum agricole is grassy because of sugarcane, and tequila is vegetal because of agave. What I understand is distillation concentrates alcohol because alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, so it’s heated and the vapor condenses on the other side. So how do flavors make it through? Also, aren’t sugars way bigger/heavier than alcohol and water? How do they make it all the way through?
In: Chemistry
Addressing the specific point of why sugars (bigger/heavier than ethanol and water) make it through, the oxygen in the OH group has two lone pairs of electrons and is able to pull strongly at the attached hydrogen, making the hydrogen quite positively charged. The result of this is that the oxygen from one OH group is strongly attracted to the Hydrogen from another. This is called hydrogen bonding, and is why molecules with an OH group (which of course includes water) tend to have significantly higher boiling points than similar size/weight molecules without one. This means that larger more complex molecules that are responsible for flavour can have a lower boiling point than water or ethanol even though the molecules are big.
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