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Others – even after an elegant sip, or a more dramatic mouthful – find reaching a decision can be more time-consuming. If the chilling is not too intense, there’s the potential to experience a broad spectrum of flavours that evolve as the whisky chills, dilutes and then gradually becomes less cold, enabling the flavours to open up again,’ says Johan Svensson, managing director of Drinksfusion, a hospitality consultancy.

A key characteristic of a whisky, this varies enormously (at the ambient temperature) from delicate and elegant, to richer and even creamy, with dilution making the texture progressively lighter. If you consider minutiae to be significant (which they are), there are numerous other details to consider.Deciding what you want to drink can be instant, as some people know exactly which Scotch whisky they want on any particular occasion. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Chilling suppresses the top notes, such as citrus and honey, while the bass notes, such as oak and peat, appear to be emphasised.

Another practical factor is that the same amount of ice will have a much greater impact on a single measure of Scotch whisky than on a double. Packing a glass with ice cubes will chill the whisky more rapidly and, the more ice there is, the more each ice cube helps to keep all the other ice cubes cold, which means the ice stays colder for longer, and takes longer to start melting,’ explains Julian de Feral, drinks director of the Gorgeous Group, a hospitality consultancy. But in terms of taste, the effect of chilling is to suppress the level of some flavour compounds – and the greater the degree of chilling, the greater the suppression. However, the chilled liquid picks up temperature from the mouth very quickly, the temperature of the palate being 37C, which is body temperature. Similarly, some people spend time pondering the best way to serve their whisky, while others don’t need to deliberate: it has to be neat.This alcoholic strength determines the flavour profile a Scotch whisky delivers: so, as it is reduced, the more the flavour profile changes, lessening the impact of alcohol on the palate. The rate of this dilution depends on the quantity and dimensions of the ice, while the overall degree of dilution naturally depends on how quickly, or slowly, the Scotch is consumed. But this isn’t because they’ve become more intense, they only appear more emphatic because the top notes are subtler, and the balance between the top notes and the bass notes has changed. If you think of flavour as a tune played on a piano, the top notes are played by the right hand, while the deeper, bass notes are played by the left hand,’ says Greg Tucker, a taste psychologist at The Marketing Clinic.

Dilution also continues the ‘chilling’ effect of the ice, though to a lesser extent, and a key consequence is a reduction in alcoholic strength. This means the question of dilution may be significant, marginal, or even irrelevant, based on the ice – and how thirsty you are. The initial impact of a chilled Scotch whisky on the palate is a sense of refreshment, with the impact of the flavours not as great as it would be at the ambient temperature, as chilling dials down some of the flavours,’ explains Tucker.A related factor is how much of the ice cube is in contact with the whisky, as ice entirely submerged beneath the surface of the liquid has a greater impact than ice which is only partially submerged (and so has less surface area contact with the liquid). There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. The exact influence of chilling and dilution will obviously vary from one Scotch whisky to another, and the only way to pinpoint this is to conduct your own tastings to discover the differences: with ice and without. The larger the ice cube, the greater its impact on the temperature of the whisky, and the longer it takes to start melting. The smaller the sip of whisky, and the longer it remains on the palate, the greater this warming effect, and the more the flavour evolves, though it’s never going to be equivalent to a sip of whisky served at the ambient temperature.