A group of scientists from Scotland have developed an ‘artificial tongue‘ that has the capacity to identify the authenticity of individual whiskies. Seems like quite a useful device, right?
Well, scientists say that this device could tell the difference between same whiskies aged for 12, 15 and 18 years with 99% accuracy.
The team also said that the device can identify a host of single malt whiskies with accurate precision, which could help in fighting against counterfeit products.
“You could train your particular ‘tongue’ to know what one of these whiskies ‘tasted’ like, so that when the fake stuff came along it could identify it and when the real stuff came along it could confirm that it was the real stuff,” said Dr Alasdair Clark, the lead author of the research from the University of Glasgow.
According to Clark, this technology can also be used to identify poisons as well as to monitor rivers. Wow!
Just so you know, the ‘artificial tongue’ is based on a glass wafer that has three separate arrays, each composed of 2 million tiny “artificial taste buds.”
This means that the device can be used to tell apart different liquids and even identify them if they have been recorded before – without revealing their makeup, rather like our own tongues do.
The team covered their ‘artificial tongue’ in seven different single malt whiskies, as well as water, 40% vodka and ethanol in water, to test their device.
The device produced a different pattern or fingerprint for each of the whiskies which in turn, enabled the scientists to tell apart a range of drams including 12 and 18-year-old samples of Glenfiddich, 10-year-old Laphroaig and Glen Marnoch’s single malt Rum Cask.