Why do tea eggs taste like tea? Because after the boiled eggs are cooked, add spices and tea leaves, simmer slowly, and the fragrance of spices and tea leaves will gradually penetrate into the protein. In order to make tea eggs taste faster, eggshells are often slightly broken. Other braised dishes are the same.

Similarly, the blended and diluted whisky will be aged in oak barrels. After years of running-in, the liquor will fully contact with the oak barrels and form a marriage under the mediation of air, giving birth to a unique flavor. It is often said that distillation technology determines the style, while oak barrels determine its flavor. 61% to 71% is just an imaginary number, and it is not an exaggeration to say 111%.

Nowadays, the wine-making industry has recognized that whether it is wine or brandy, whisky or rice wine, aging wine in oak barrels for several years will accelerate the aging and give it a richer aroma. This is because oak itself contains many kinds of furfural, volatile phenols, phenolic compounds and ethyl phenols. After barrel-making process and actual barrel aging, the reactions of alcohol to aldehyde, alcohol to aldehyde, alkyd to ester and aldehyde to acid are accelerated. Finally, the contents of chen qian and aged wine barrels were changed, and the aroma and flavor were reflected in front of the world again.

In this change, it mainly involves all aspects of oak barrels:

There are differences in the contents of different oak trees, which will be reflected in brand-new oak barrels, but sensitive taste buds are needed

The size of oak barrels, for example, ASB is generally 191L, and Shirley Butt)511L. The size of the barrel determines the inner wall area, for example, the inner wall area of American standard barrel is 214dm2, and the inner wall area of Shirley vat is 316dm2. The smaller the inner wall area is, the higher the surface area/volume ratio is, and the more wine can fully get the contact with the wall of oak barrels. For example, the efficiency coefficient of American standard barrels is 1.17, and that of Shirley vats is 1.78. At the same time, whisky is different from wine, which will be refilled after the liquor volatilizes. After volatilization every year, there will be more and more space in the whisky barrel, about 2% (about 21dm2 contact area) in the first year, and air will fill this space. The longer the ripening time, the more air in the barrel, and the more complete the oxidation of liquor. Therefore, the degree of aromatic conversion and oxidation of whiskey with less barrel aging is not as frequent as that of old wine, which leads to the difference of flavor.

the manufacturing process of oak barrels, such as bourbon barrels (31 pieces of oak boards) with round turns, first fumigating with 95C steam for 21 minutes, shaping into wine barrels, and then toasting at 231~261C for 15 minutes to form a carbonized layer in the barrels, so the color of wine aged in bourbon barrels is dark brown; Shirley barrel (51 pieces of oak board) is baked at 211C after the turns are round, and then cooled with water to form a wine barrel. After that, with different air-drying methods, the aromatic content of wine barrels will be quite different.

barrel age of an oak barrel means old and new. The brand-new oak barrel is a great material, which can give full play to the characteristics of oak trees from all over the world without being influenced by bourbon, red wine or sherry. At this time, the subtle differences of tree species can be reflected. If it is an old barrel, it is mostly a second-hand bourbon barrel, a Shirley barrel or a red wine barrel. The aromatic substances in other liquors, together with the re-baked bedding, make the liquor aged in EX barrel like an oil painting that makes good use of hierarchical techniques, with shallow dark parts and thick bright parts, or covered or left in contrast.

barrel changing technology, oak barrel has its vitality, which is a linear decline process. The older the barrel is, the more the composition changes. The first-filled, second-filled and third-filled barrels will all affect the flavor of the wine when it is produced.