When blending flavors there are many variables to consider: sweetness, acidity, saltiness, spiciness, mouth feel and more.
Some people love cloyingly sweet drinks, some love tart drinks, others like really strong drinks. Unless you know the person very well it’s all pure luck for you to guess what will make them happy.
How the heck do you decide what to mix for someone else? Whenever I have a new person ask for a drink who does not have a specific request or a favorite flavor, I simply bounce some questions off them:
• Do you prefer sweet or sour?
• Do you like bitter flavors?
• Do you prefer a light or rich texture?
• Would you prefer a strong alcohol flavor or to not notice it?
• Finally: Is there anything you are allergic to or utterly loathe that I should know about?
The last thing you want to do is have your new drinking companion spit out the drink or worse, keel over from it. Your goal as a mixologist is to bring enjoyment to drinkers, not hurt them.

One thing to keep in mind: unless you know that you have a very adventurous drinker, the flavors need to stay within the drinker’s comfort zone. People don’t generally embrace strangeness. Experimentation outside what a person is accustomed to will often result in failure. That being said, a well crafted drink can convert a timid drinker into an excited explorer on the seas of taste rather quickly.
Take for example, polarizing flavors like grapefruit or gin, people love them or hate them.

Mix exotic and strong flavors with mild ones whenever possible. Great drinks create some punch with a strong flavor, but are enhanced by traces of milder flavors.
Really quality drinks tend to have a few simple flavor themes combined

Let’s talk about some ground rules for mixing flavors.
Sweet satiates the appetite. You feel more satisfied after having sweets because the brain registers it as having actually had something of high caloric value. Sweetness brings out the flavors of other ingredients.
Bitterness suppresses sweetness. Bitterness is a cleansing taste that makes you want to continue tasting.
Salty flavors are probably the most important in balancing and extracting flavor from savory ingredients.
Adding salt to a cocktail actually increases its sweetness. It seems counterintuitive but taste a Margarita both with and without salt. It is a totally different experience.
Acidity on the other hand increases saltiness and bitterness while reducing sweetness.
Sour flavors brighten a drink and are important for balance. A hint of sour can help separate out a bunch of sweet flavors and allow you to appreciate each separately.
Since everything can be categorized as one of the five flavors, assign one of those five labels to everything you encounter for mixing and use the following rules to determine how you mix.
• Bitter balances Salty
• Sour balances Sweet
• Salty combines with Sour
• Sour combines with Bitter
• Bitter combines with Sweet
• Sweet combines with Salty
• Umami combines with EVERYTHING
This can be best described visually by the flavor cross.

Now, outside the flavor cross are a couple flavor categories that should also be considered Piquancy and Astringency.
• Piquancy is balanced by Creaminess or Sweet.
• Astringency is balanced by either Sweet or Juicy ingredients.
• Astringency combines with Bitter or Salty
• Piquancy combines with Sour, Bitter and Salty.
• Umami combines well with BOTH.

That’s flavors in a nutshell. I spend a bit more time on this in the book
So go to your bar or your kitchen. Try combining a few flavors and see how it works.

Until next time, may all your drinks be tasty. Cheers.