Lots of cool stuff today, so let’s hop right in!

A study from the University of Oxford has revealed that the environment in which one drinks whisky can alter taste perceptions by as much as 20%. In the study to be published in September, Professor Charles Spence and his colleagues observed drinkers in the world’s first multi-sensorium tracking bar to discover that one’s environment — namely the colors around you and the ambient sounds — can heighten and enhance the drinking experience. No doubt this research will be ingested by every single beverage company in the world and will potentially have serious ramifications on how environments such as bars and clubs are designed. More on the experiment can be found here. [Singleton Sensorium]

Popular Science asks the question so many beer drinkers have asked throughout the ages: are hops addictive? While the modern day drinker would respond in kind with a dismissive “duh,” researchers searched for hard evidence on the issue. [Popular Science]

Elsewhere in the science world, Scientific American takes a hard look at the analytical breakdown into what makes bourbon so appealing on a chemical and molecular level, and discuss potential future trends for American whiskey when armed with big data. [Scientific American]

And finally today, for the drinker who may very well have everything: a wallet made from Cork. This gorgeous, minimal wallet is under development and in its Kickstarter phase, but it certainly looks good. Here’s hoping it moves from prototyping to production stage in short order. [Kickstarter]

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