Perhaps one of the most joyous experiences of life is aroma. For some reason aroma is tied to our memories and expectations, both. This was put most eloquently by Helen Keller:
Olfaction - smells and aromas - seems to be a sense that is closely linked to our limbic brain which is tied to both emotion and memory. For example, Sue Sea has experienced rums that - out of nowhere - have caused her to tear up and remember her grandfather and his leather table. But as always, I digress."Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start to awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening fields far away."
The many aromas of both rum and whiskey (brown spirits) are directly related to both esters and acids. Both of these, especially with barrel aging, lead to ever more complexity. Except for the Jamaican style most rums contain an average of perhaps 50 or 60 esters. What made and makes Jamaican rums prized is their process of using combinations of molasses, skimmings, dunder and cane juice - even pieces of cane - in ther fermentations. The result:
Up to 1700 esters in four ester-based categories.
Yet one wonders: are all of those esters important? Are they detectable and can they be distinguished from one another. In a definitive word: maybe!
German scientists recently published a study of bourbon to explore these questions. They found that of 300 components of whisky (including esters) they wondered which, if any components might be "key components" responsible for the "fruity, smoky, vanilla and other harmonics of whiskey".
In their study Peter Schieberle and Luigi Poisson focused on just 40 compounds (13 newly discovered) that they believe are most responsible for the pleasant and classic aromas of bourbon ("...a signature mixture of scents, including fruity, earthy and cooked apple").
And what did they conclude? Stay tuned... (don't you just hate me?)
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Note: The answer may be found in ACS' (American Chemical Society) bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, issue of July 23, 2008.