Are Wine & Food Pairings All Nonsense?

Foodies know that coffee and chocolate go well together. But add garlic to the mix and you get a taste sensation that *absolutely* broke my brain. I dig into the science of flavor pairings, especially when it comes to the famous (infamous?) combo of wine and cheese.

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Credits:
Executive Producers:
Matthew Radcliff

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey
Darren Weaver

Writer/Host:
George Zaidan

Scientific Consultants:
Charles Spence, Ph.D.
Leila Duman, PhD
Brianne Raccor, PhD

Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Reactions is a production of the American Chemical Society.
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

Sources:

A Dinner Demonstration of Threshold Differences in Taste and Smell

Food and beverage flavour pairing: A critical review of the literature

New Insights into Wine Taste: Impact of Dietary Lipids on Sensory Perceptions of Grape Tannins

What are Tannins, Really?

Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry

The Science of Melting Cheese

Catechins

FOOD PAIRING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE VOLATILE COMPOUNDS IN FOOD DATABASE

Food & Wine:

Umami synergy as the scientific principle behind taste‑pairing champagne and oysters

Handbook of Enology - Volume 2: The chemistry of Wine Stabilization and Treatments

Iron Is an Essential Cause of Fishy Aftertaste Formation in Wine and Seafood Pairing

Pairing flavours and the temporal order of tasting

Food and beverage flavour pairing: A critical review of the literature

[ACSReactions]

Try these food combos yourself and let us know what you think. We. dare you.

[eroraf]

Food chemistry? Actual flavor science? Yes please, more of this!

[VideoMakesMeHappy]

As someone who is studying chemistry and involved in the food/beverage industry - this is just what I need!

[AnacondaHL]

8:57 I'm blown away by this experiment as well, WOW!

[elvinmay]

They only problem I see with the food pairing experiment that blended the food is that the molecules would be very different ones disrupted by blending as blending itself is causing a reaction. call it a form of cooking in a way. However, when chewing food you usually dont get it to be as evenly broken down and distributed as when blended giving a different result all together.

[krombopulosix]

my dude is wearing his 7th grade T-shirt

[BrettWordon]

Re red wine and seafood - merlot and dolphin is a GREAT combo! Yum

[jordantyler]

Sauv blanc and plain potato chips. Excellent video! Fun and informative!!

[I.____.....__...__]

11:47 I just tried garlic+coffee+chocolate. It was good for a couple of seconds, but then I felt nauseous and dizzy afterwards. I feel really awful now. 🤮 😵 If I die, I'm coming back as a ghost to sue you. 😒

[kaseyklynstra]

3:11 Not to be that person, but... isn't steel like >97% iron?

[shaytrequesser]

my friend, this content is gold! loved the story and the delivery, but for some reason the image looks dated and the audio could use some improvements. Other than that 10/10

[京狐夢美]

Now I think I need to add garlic to my cacao coffee

[palpytine]

Yes, that's the English (as opposed to American) spelling of "flavour"

[MSWMW]

I pair my food with Diet coke, year 2023, from the coca cola vineyard. It gives my mouth organ a nice cola flavor with hints of coca

[ivanalonsogonzalezpavez]

surprising information about wine pairing. But I still prefer a good beer in most cases.

[Leslie_ann_h]

I've tried various wines (a bit under 5mls) over the years but I've yet to find one that I can tolerate as they are all disgusting. However, slightly fermented pomegranate juice is fairly tasty even though I got quite drunk from it and had the drunk effects for several days after.

[dfryers]

By 'steel' I'm guessing you mean stainless steel. Also I'd imagine only the old world reds (French e.g.) suffer badly from this?

[veganmatry]

"Flavour" is the proper spelling though.

[xywxvdi]

Still missing Samantha isn't her podcast completed lots of love from vivek to her 💙