This is what a computer thinks rum should taste like
LONDON -- Ordering a piña colada or a rum and coke in your local pub will likely never taste the same as it does on a beach in Bali. But one brand is trying to recreate those holiday booze flavours using a very un-tropical tool: data.
According to Joe Harrod -- a big data analyst and Artificial Intelligence expert -- Virgin Holidays used IBM Watson's linguistic AI to interpret millions of social media posts to pick out key emotions associated with holidays.
Watson -- IBM's famous supercomputer -- then analysed thousands of rum reviews to uncover which ingredients elicit different emotions and sensations in reviewers.
The two data sets were then matched up to create the "world's first data-distilled rum recipe". Harrod explains that they took key emotions and concepts from 15 million public social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The second data set analysed the language and tone of 5,000 rum reviews and tasting notes found online. "The data showed us that the top five emotions associated with holidays are: happiness, adventurousness, curiosity, relaxation and excitement," says Harrod. "It also showed us that these emotions matched with the following respective flavours: vanilla, all spice, curiosity, coconut and sugar or sweetness. This gave us the key flavours for our rum recipe," Harrod continued.
While technology played a key role in developing the recipe, the rum was produced using traditional methods. "The rum essentially tastes like a holiday. With the perfect blend of vanilla, sweetness, spice and tropical coconut this premium drink captures all the flavour of the holiday spirit," Harrod continued.
The limited edition bottles of rum, priced at £59 ($73.42), are available to purchase from London V-Room stores and at the V-Hols lounge at Gatwick Airport.
Topics Artificial Intelligence
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
