The Science of Flavour: a Podcast with Christine Parkinson

Welcome to episode 25 of the REAL podcast, brought to you as always by REAL - purveyors of award-winning non-alcoholic alternatives to sparkling wines. Have you heard that we’re available now in Waitrose? If you haven’t, you’ll want to add a beautiful bottle of Royal Flush to your basket or online trolley next time you’re doing the weekly shop.

Ever wondered what’s going on in your mouth when you taste a great drink? How about the technique behind formulating a winning food pairing? It’s something we think about all the time. Here at REAL we’re lucky enough to meet some wonderful, highly skilful people, and occasionally, when we invite them to come and share their wealth of knowledge on our podcast, they say yes.

We first met Christine Parkinson when she was Head of Wine for Hakkasan, the world-renowned restaurant specialising in modern Chinese cuisine. At the time, her team was looking for a kombucha to be served as a non-alcoholic food pairing and our drinks slid onto the menu very comfortably indeed.

Since then, Christine has gone on to form the Brimful Drinks consultancy – a particularly interesting venture that specialises in helping companies working in the low/no world, some of whom have already been guests on this podcast.

This development fascinated us. That someone who has won Industry Legend awards after her years spent in the wine world should choose to move her attentions to the burgeoning non-alcoholic space… well, that really said something about the sincerity with which this category is being taken.

In this episode, Christine will talk to us about the tips and techniques she learnt for tasting drinks, the science that accompanies taste, the art of creating a great food pairing, and – of course – the considerable interest she has in the world of non-alcoholic drinks. We also learn some of that all-important drinks-tasting vocab – vital if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Adjust your napkins and set your tongues to drool. It’s going to be a tasty one.