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
A lot of our perception of flavour comes from aroma in the nose, rather than taste on the tongue.
Our nose is sensitive to a lot of chemicals that easily turn to vapor, and some of these chemicals can and will come across during distillation. (They are already a vapor at room temperature, so at the boiling point of alcohol we’d expect them to be able to be vapours as well.)
Some might tend to come over before the boiling point of ethanol, around the boiling point, or after, and sometimes these are referred to as the ‘head(s)’, ‘heart(s)’, and ‘tail(s)’ of the distillation, respectively.
Things like sugar itself would not be expected to vaporise and so doesn’t end up in the final product of distillation.
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