Whisky tasting using a bimetallic nanoplasmonic tongue

The paper titled ‘Whisky tasting using a bimetallic nanoplasmonic tongue’ has recently been published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Nanoscale. The research was conducted by engineers and chemists from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde was supported by funding from Leverhulme Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Scottish engineers describe how they built the tiny taster, which exploits the optical properties of gold and aluminium to test tipples. An artificial ‘tongue’ which can taste subtle differences between drams of whisky could help cut down on the trade-in counterfeit alcohol, scientists say.

Sub-microscopic slices of the two metals, arranged in a checkerboard pattern, act as the ‘tastebuds’ in the team’s artificial tongue. The researchers poured samples of whisky over the tastebuds – which are about 500 times smaller than their human equivalents – and measured how they absorb light while submerged.

Statistical analysis of the very subtle differences in how the metals in the artificial tongue absorb light – what scientists call its plasmonic resonance – allowed the team to identify different types of whiskies. The team used the tongue to sample a selection of whiskies from Glenfiddich, Glen Marnoch and Laphroaig.

The tongue was able to taste differences between drinks with more than 99% accuracy. It was capable of picking up on the subtler distinctions between the same whisky aged in different barrels, and tell the difference between the same whisky aged for 12, 15 and 18 years, scientists say.

While describing about the artificial tongue and its capabilities, Alasdair Clark, paper’s lead author from the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering, says, “We call this an artificial tongue because it acts similarly to a human tongue – like us, it can’t identify the individual chemicals which make coffee taste different from apple juice but it can easily tell the difference between these complex chemical mixtures.”

“We’re not the first researchers to make an artificial tongue, but we’re the first to make a single artificial tongue that uses two different types of nanoscale metal ‘tastebuds’, which provides more information about the ‘taste’ of each sample and allows a faster and more accurate response.”

He further adds, “While we’ve focused on whisky in this experiment, the artificial tongue could easily be used to ‘taste’ virtually any liquid, which means it could be used for a wide variety of applications. In addition to its obvious potential for use in identifying counterfeit alcohols, it could be used in food safety testing, quality control, security – any area where a portable, reusable method of tasting would be useful.”