Ale Ochoa

“The Sensory Scientist”

Alejandra “Ale” Ochoa’s route into whiskey began in a Texas A&M classroom, when a history professor’s stories about Scotland sparked a question that she couldn’t let go: how could whiskeys made from the same basic ingredients taste so different? That curiosity nudged her toward food science and a hands-on apprenticeship in flavor chemistry and sensory analysis. While working as a technician in a sensory science kitchen and flavor lab, she told a professor she wanted to work with whiskey. The right person overheard and introduced her to PhD student Rob Arnold, who, outside the lab, was Master Distiller at Firestone & Robertson (F&R) in Fort Worth. That connection steered her graduate work to whiskey and set the direction for her career.

A first-generation Mexican American, Ochoa focused her Master’s Degree thesis research at Texas A&M  on how different types of corn affect whiskey flavor, applying sensory science and instrumental analysis. This academic work dovetailed with field trials F&R supported in partnership with Texas A&M, testing hybrids and terroir effects on new-make spirit. The collaboration culminated in a peer-reviewed study demonstrating that corn variety and Texas soil measurably influence flavor and alcohol yield in new-make bourbon, with Ochoa as co-author. Published in August 2019, the paper provided rare, rigorous evidence for grain-driven whiskey character.

After graduating A&M, Ochoa joined F&R as a whiskey scientist. Her role was to build and run a formal sensory program: training panels, quantifying aroma and flavor, and ensuring quality and consistency from new-make through maturation to the bottled whiskey. She described the day-to-day work as “sampling and quantifying the aromas and flavors of whiskey” to make sure what reaches the shelf represents the distillery at its best. The job lived at the nexus of grain selection, fermentation, distillation, barrel monitoring, and blend evaluation, where data and palate meet.

That scientific rigor fed directly back into F&R’s TX Whiskey program. By linking the chemistry of agriculture to sensory outcomes, Ochoa could make grain and barrel decisions with clearer intent. The research also had practical implications: varieties and growing sites that expressed more favorable flavor markers (and better yield) could be prioritized, and the distillery’s trained panel could validate those choices in the glass. It was an unusually academic-industry feedback loop for American whiskey, and it helped define TX Whiskey’s methodical approach to flavor.