Give Your Bitter Liquor A New Life With This Popular Barista Tool

There are cocktail enthusiasts who love to kick back the driest drinks with a splash of cocktail bitters, and then there are those who pucker up at the mere thought of it. If you fall into the second camp but still want to enjoy a good drink, there's an unexpected solution hiding in your kitchen: your milk frother. Most people wouldn't ever think of using a milk frother for cocktails (it's more of a coffee-making tool, after all), but there are genuine uses for it in drink-mixing. Beyond making a foamy topping for the occasional Irish coffee, though, it turns out that a milk frother can also be used to mellow the harsh bite of bitter liquors like tequila.

TikToker @timthetankofficial is often credited as the one to bring the internet's attention to this trick. In a July 2023 video, he frothed some tequila for 30 seconds, and after taste-testing it next to an un-frothed tequila, he found the former to be far smoother. If you've got troubles downing your Patrón (or any other liquor that you find to be a bit too hard on the palate), this trick may just work wonders. But that still leaves us wondering why and how this works.

There doesn't seem to be a concrete answer as to why frothing alcohol makes it smoother, but chemistry professor Dr. Eric Simanek has a few theories, which he shared with Fox News. First, the change in temperature inside the liquor when you whisk it — "a little bit of heat," as Dr. Simanek described it — could change its chemistry slightly, leading to a different taste. It could also be the oxygen that's added to the liquor, as it can "react with flavorful molecules," per Dr. Simanek. 

But the explanation that Dr. Simanek put the most stock in is in those tiny bubbles you see floating up onto the liquor's surface when you whisk it up. "I'd posit that when one drinks in these fine bubbles, they burst, making these flavorful, greasy molecules fly up into the air into the mouth, allowing them to be smelled with the nose," the expert told the outlet. This allows you to smell (and taste) the liquor better without bitterness getting in the way.

Whatever the case, it's good to know that morning lattes and elevating boozy drink recipes aren't a milk frother's only uses. And if you don't have one in your kitchen or mixing station just yet, check out our ultimate guide to buying a milk frother.