The effect of cocktails on the palate

[ned]

Is it just me, or does ordering a Vodka martini just prior to a fine dining experience not conducive to good culinary judgement, from a journalistic perspective? Doesn't that dull the palate?

This is overplayed by haute types. Yes, alcohol does have a temporary anaesthetic effect when it acts directly on the nerves in the mouth. But this effect also doesn't last very long... certainly not as long as the effect of, e.g., drinking a rich, chewy, tannin-filled glass of red wine.

I think the issue is not so much the effect on the actual buds but rather on the general acuity of the reviewer both in terms of parsing his experience of the food and his memory of what he's eaten. In my experience, there is a notable decrease in faculties when a serious meal is preceded by an, albeit gin, martini.

The above is from a discussion of whether a food reviewer had ought to slurp down two martinis before eating food he is charged to review. It's many months later. . . tonight I've been thumbing through Fernand Point's Ma Gastronomie and found, within his "Notebook" (kind of a list of statements or occasionally aphorisms) the following:

"After one cocktail or, worse yet, two, the palate can no more distinguish a bottle of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from a bottle of ink!"

If Point says it, it's got to be true, right?

What do you think?

[slkinsey]

Interesting question. I'm glad you brought this back up.

I think it depends greatly on the size of the cocktail (and they are way too big these days). A properly sized cocktail contains no more than 3 ounces of strong spirits which, as it turns out, contains right around the same amount of alcohol as the average pour of wine.

So, fundamentally, from the "senses befuddled by alcohol" perspective, there is little difference between preceding dinner with a martini or a glass of wine. A proper cocktail should be short, cold, bracing and stimulating of the appetite. Unfortunately, when you take that formula and blow up a three ounce drink into a 9 ounce drink, intoxication starts to become an issue. I think people would be best off ordering a cocktail split between two people and served in two glasses.

[goldie]

I read your post earlier and wanted to think about it before replying. My husband and I frequently have this conversation when going out to a new or "status" restaurant where we really want the food flavors to sing. His contention is that for maximum enjoyment of the meal one should have either a "light" wine such as a sauvignon blanc or champange or pinot or a lightly flavored drink (vodka with lemon juice and seltzer is a nice one for summer). Then you don't compete with the flavors of the meal. While I can see his point, my preference is for a nice gin martini served properly ice cold with a clean gin (my current favorite is Plymouth Gin). I like a martini to start because the herbal qualities of the gin refresh my palate (ok- also because I just like gin ).

That said, when ordering a cocktail, we rarely finish them. Like slkinsey, I think they are simply too big. I do like the new trend (is it new or just new in Boston?) of individual shakers- makes sharing and keeping your drinks cold much more discreet. Another issue is the service- sometimes the timing is just off. You can wait a million years for an appetizer in which a whole cocktail is consumed and you are let with nothing but an empty glass or an offer of another one or premature wine service (don't they have a new drug for that); or, it arrives immediately and then you might not want to drink a martini with your escargot.

I like to use wine to compliment and enhance my food and I know my limits in appreciation after a few drinks. Perhaps that is the key in these situations. Certainly some people can write reviews and taste things with several drinks under their belts whereas others should really just stick to water. I guess it is really dependant upon the individual.

[ned]

I had the opportunity to eat at Jean Georges about two and a half years ago. Three of us: my wife, a friend and I. The friend had been a roommate with someone in the kitchen and so voila: VIP. No menus, wine pairings with each of the many courses. In all one of the top eating experience of my life. Billed at a discount no less. We were feeling festive at home beforehand and I had been in a phase of mixing a little maraschino with gin and various bittering agents: lemon juice, angostura, bottled yuzu (not all at the same time). We each had a generous one of those before heading out to the restaurant, a good hour before actually eating.

To this day I regret that before dinner drink. As a result of it, I wasn't as fully present as I could have been. I felt it mildly at the time and more pronouncedly in the days that followed and I looked back on the meal. I remain stunned and in some way gratified that--harkening back to Mr. Point--the simplest dish was also the most complex, elegant and memorable: Fat green asparagus in a béarnaise. Morels. It was a perfect dish. In any case, it was a great experience that could have been that much greater had I forgone the cocktail. It was a pivotal moment as, since that meal, whenever there is the slightest chance of another like experience, I always skip the drink altogether.

I think the first biggest problem is not so much that spirits dull the senses. It's that a fine long meal has an arc. It's nice and I think appropriate to chart that arc psychically. Light wines at first, they being low in alcohol and your first one or three glasses of the night. Then moving into more and heavier wines and flavors in foods with more fats. The glasses add up. It’s a parallel flight: One’s state of mind with the evolution of the narrative of the meal and the relative intensities of the experience.

I'm all for drinking lots of cold spirits with a big steak or other such meaty fatty extravagances and there's even a physiognomic precedent for it. But that’s another conversation altogether.

[trillium]

I think if you had been less generous in your pour, you would have had much less to regret? I do fine with a before dinner drink that exerts its effect for about 10 minutes (basically about 3 oz of alcohol) but anything bigger on my empty stomach and there is a disconnect between my tongue and brain. In cases of where maximum enjoyment of food is desired this is bad, in cases where a general anesthetic effect is desired, not so bad. So I don't order cocktails before dinner in restaurants where I know I want to really enjoy my food, unless I can share one with someone.

regards,

trillium

[slkinsey]

We each had a generous one of those before heading out to the restaurant, a good hour before actually eating.

To this day I regret that before dinner drink.  As a result of it, I wasn't as fully present as I could have been.

"A generous one" (presumably on an empty stomach) says it all. Here, we're not talking about the effect of a cocktail on your palate, we're talking about the effect of alcohol intoxication on your senses. I would also suggest, based on your recounting, that the primary effect of the alcohol was not to make you "less present" during the dinner but rather to interfere with your storage of those experiences in long term memory. I'm not saying that this isn't important, just that it's not the same thing.

Again, we get down to the effect of having too much alcohol. A reasonably-sized cocktail contains no more alcohol than the standard pour of wine. Do you think you would have had a similarly attenuated experience had it been a glass of chardonnay or a bottle of beer instead of the gin cocktail? Or if the gin cocktail had been half the size?

People differ widely in their ability to tolerate alcohol. This has to do with many things (sex, weight, age, the body's ability to manufacture alcohol dehydrogenase, etc.). It could be that, for you, drinking that much alcohol in any form on an empty stomach is too much for you to have a "peak attention restaurant eperience." For me, it wouldn't be much of a concern. Most people can metabolize about an ounce of pure alcohol per hour, and I know from experience that I can go higher. A three ounce martini contains right around 1.3 ounces of pure alcohol. So, for me, by the time I got to the restaurant my blood alcohol would be lower than it would have been if I had a glass of champagne at the table waiting for the first course to arrive. Now, if it was a 6 ounce martini. . . different story. But no one is advocating 6 ounce martinis -- quite the opposite. I'm just pointing out that no one asks whether a before-dinner glass of champagne dulls the palate.

[Tess]

I like aperitivos before dinner. I feel as if they really do stimulate the appetite and I don't think they dull my taste buds, despite the strong taste some of them have. I don't recall (and often was not told) the names of ones I've had in Europe, but I keep Cynar and Campari at home.

I can't have much of a cocktail before a nice dinner just because my stomach is usually empty (by design) and even a small one would make me drunk. I have to save my alcohol allowance for the wine.

[ned]

It could be that, for you, drinking that much alcohol in any form on an empty stomach is too much for you to have a "peak attention restaurant eperience."  For me, it wouldn't be much of a concern.  Most people can metabolize about an ounce of pure alcohol per hour, and I know from experience that I can go higher.  A three ounce martini contains right around 1.3 ounces of pure alcohol.  So, for me, by the time I got to the restaurant my blood alcohol would be lower than it would have been if I had a glass of champagne at the table waiting for the first course to arrive. 

←

It's been quite a while since I've been called a lightweight. Despite that the ability to metabolize large amounts of alcohol at this stage in my life probably isn't something to feel pride in, I'm amused to find the urge to rebut. However the point here is a good one and goes back to your orginal take, Sam, which is that each of us has a certain tolerance and if a certain degree of clearheadedness is desired, one ought to pay attention to that tolerance when the martini cart comes round.

Had it been a meal with less specificity, fewer clear and bright flavors (and maybe, just maybe fewer wine pairings) executed with less virtuosity, none of this would have mattered. All I'd remember would be the delicious drink I had before dinner.

At the moment I'm thinking about Ducasse, the site of this original discussion. I've never eaten in the dining room but I did have the opportunity to do a stage there for a week last winter during black truffle season. Ate most of the menu sitting by myself in the aquarium. Killer experiece. The flavors, the plates, the sauces were all like depth charges. At least under Delouvrier, there was nothing small and I'm wanting to say nothing subtle but that's not quite right. . . anyway you get the point. I think Delouvrier's food could stand a fair bit more preliminatory inebriation than JG or Per Se. Following the narratives of that meal is not difficult, any more than it's difficult to recognize when one is getting beaten about the head and neck.

Edited June 16, 2005 by ned (log)

[slkinsey]

It's been quite a while since I've been called a lightweight.  Despite that the ability to metabolize large amounts of alcohol at this stage in my probably life isn't something to feel pride in, I'm amused to find the urge to rebut.  However the point here is a good one and goes back to your orginal take, Sam, which is that each of us has a certain tolerance and if a certain degree of clearheadedness is desired, one ought to pay attention to that tolerance when the martini cart comes round.

I'm not sure lightweight is what I was getting at, because I'm sure your head wasn't spinning. I've always seemed to be able to absorb larger-than-average amounts of alcohol without feeling the effects of intoxication, but I believe that is different than "building up a tolerance," which I think has more to do with learning to compensate for the intoxication than not feeling the effects. Anyway, depending on the size of your before-dinner gin drink, I don't think anyone would be able to go through a meal like that without some intoxication effects. I hardly, if ever, have a cocktail at a high end restaurant precisely because they're too big. I've never thought to ask for the drink split between two (or even three), but I might do that next time around.