Q: Mouthfeel?
“What words are usually used to describe the mouthfeel of whiskey?”
A: The words I use are hot, viscous, thin, creamy, silky, dry, tannic and astringent.
Inherently, all whiskey will be “hot” to some extent from the alcohol. But I’ll pay attention to how long the heat lasts or if it comes in waves, where in my mouth I feel it and then if it has more of a tingly or prickly sensation. I’ll also assess the viscosity of the whiskey, whether it feels thin like water, creamy or silky like… well cream and silk, or viscous like thick syrup. The whiskey’s viscosity may build while it’s in your mouth mingling with your saliva. Dry, tannic and astringent are all similar in that they’re describing a drying sensation. Astringent feels like a drying related to the alcohol, where tannic is related to the tannins extracted from the barrel wood and is almost like chewing on a cinnamon stick. A dry whiskey will suck the moisture from your mouth usually from a combo of being both astringent and tannic.
In my opinion, a really great whiskey will have barely any heat, just enough to warm your mouth, that disappears within a second. It’ll quickly build in viscosity to feel like your tongue is tucked into silk sheets and will have a wonderfully long finish that maybe makes you salivate ever so slightly. Some qualities of a not-so-good whiskey are:
A lot of heat, heat that last or a whooshing effect (not a technical term to describe when heat builds back up after dissipating)
Very thin that doesn’t build in viscosity
Really drying, whether is from the alcohol or the tannins
To add a few more words to your vocabulary, Fred Minnick defines his mouthfeel descriptors in his book “Bourbon Curious: A simple tasting guide for the savvy drinker”. In alphabetical order, they are...
Adhesive: sticks to the mouth, especially cheeks, and is drying
Astringent: alcoholic, similar to mouthwash
Chewy: tannic, lots of wood influence
Creamy: or silky
Crispy: light
Dry: sucks out moisture
Mouth-coating: warming all over your mouth
Rough: stings and bites
Snap-crackle-pop: tingling on your tongue
Soft: quick and intense with a short finish
Mouthfeel is a big part in how we assess a whiskey and can vary from palate to palate. Describe how it feels in your mouth with whatever words feel appropriate to you. A pro-tip that I’ll leave you with is to steer clear from using “smooth” as it’s not a precise descriptor.
Other Q&A Posts
“What are the different distillation cuts?” When distilling any spirit, there are parts of the distillate that you want to keep and others that you want to toss out. The distillation cuts are commonly referred to as the heads, hearts and tails and they condense off the still in that order. The hearts cut is what the distiller keeps, ages and bottles. Read about the composition of each distillation cut and more here!