Mouth Bacteria Makes Wine, Food Taste Better

Yeah, a little gross! And I've never heard the guy at the liquor store mention bacteria when recommending an inexpensive but not "cheap" bottle of wine.

Researchers set out to unravel the mystery of this flavor rush certain wines, like Sauvignon Blanc, give off several seconds after the initial sip.

In order to smell something a volatile substance must come in contact with the olfactory tissue in our nasal cavities. Certain foods, like wine, contain thiols and shortly after they hit our mouths they react and produce sulfur compounds that give foods their scent.

Now, here's the kicker. Normally these sulfur compounds are odorless.

Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists tested this phenomenon by feeding 30 trained panelists, grapes, onions and bell peppers, then asking them to spit out the food after 5 seconds.

The participants tasted the thiols immediately. The sulfur compounds didn't arise for another 20-30 seconds and lasted for up to 3 minutes, while the thiols faded away in only a few seconds.

To see why this happens researchers incubated the samples. After 24 hours 80% of the scent-giving thiols had broken down. Leading scientists to believe normal mouth bacteria is responsible for the "retroaromatic" flavor of certain foods and drinks.

The findings might make it possible to develop foods with longer-lasting tastes. Hello, never heard of the everlasting gobstoppers!

Via Reuters.

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