Salt-induced effect on the alcohol-stimulative taste in London dry gin

During the manufacture of London dry gin, large quantities of water are added to dilute the alcohol content before bottling. In this study, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy was employed to determine whether the presence of salts in the dilution water could potentially reduce the alcohol-stimulative taste of gin. Specifically, the effect of MgCl₂ was investigated for EtOH-H₂O mixtures and three gin samples prepared on the laboratory scale using different types of botanicals, including juniper berries and coriander seeds. The results revealed that MgCl₂ strengthened the water-ethanol hydrogen-bonding structure in the presence of botanical-derived terpenes. Although the mean sensory evaluation scores for alcohol irritation were lower with the addition of MgCl₂, this difference was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the degree of observed reduction in alcohol irritation was found to vary depending on the terpene compounds present in the gin. It was therefore proposed that salts such as MgCl₂ have the potential to strengthen water-ethanol hydrogen-bonding structure and, at the same time, attenuate the alcohol-stimulative taste of gins. The quality of dilution water could be a critical raw material factor influencing the final quality, even for gin containing terpene compounds.