Let’s face it — most of us will drink anything put in front of us, but an electronic tongue developed at a Barcelona university is capable of telling the difference between not just any old wine, but sparkling cava.
This is done by sensors, as you probably guessed, but also by throwing in a bit of math to the equation, too. Apparently you can tell the difference between cavas by how much sugar has been added, with the guide (y’know, just in case you’ve got an electronic tongue lying around in your wardrobe somewhere) showing that:
Brut Nature (<3 g/l, no sugar added), extra brut (<6 g/l), brut (<12 g/l), extra dry (12-17 g/l), dry (17-35 g/l), medium-dry (33-50 g/l) and sweet (>50 g/L).
While the tongue can only distinguish brut, brut nature and medium-dry, the researchers working on the project at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona are hopefully his palette will mature and be able to identify more wines one day soon. I’m not exactly sure why humanity needs a sommelier-tongue, but personally I wouldn’t mind helping it out with some — hic! — testing. [PhysOrg]
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