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Taste and smell work as a team, both adding dimension to what we commonly perceive of as distinct sensations. They also share the unique quality of being internal, that is, we experience these two senses entirely inside our own head. What we see can be pointed at and objectified, what we hear is external to all of us and what we touch can be felt equally by all. Assuming normal, unimpeded sensory information we can easily agree on the qualities of sight, hearing and touch. But, not so with the qualities of taste and smell. All of our senses have been important to our survival as animals and our cultivated ascension as human beings. Most people have played the game of, "if you had to live without one of your senses, which would you choose?" and for most of us it's a question of losing sight, hearing or touch. We forget about smell and taste. I think smell and taste are the most basic senses, the most individual and the most intriguing. I'd most regret the loss of smell or taste. The average human can differentiate 10,000 distinct aromas and many of us have a much broader discrimination. Aroma is detected by the olfactory bulb located at the top of our nasal cavity, tucked underneath the front of the brain. Aromatic messages come through the nose and are transmitted from the olfactory bulb to the limbic part of the brain wherein is located our higher order emotions, memories and speech. Auditory, motor and visual input is interpreted in the back part of the brain. We have all experienced the unexpected flash of memory that arises from an aroma, bringing back numerous other details of a time or place long forgotten. It is almost magical that such vivid recollection can come flooding back through our sense of smell when all the mental effort we might have exerted failed to stir the memory. Smell goes right to our deepest memories and emotions. Smell is extremely important. It protects us from consuming spoiled foods and warns us of impending danger. There is some evidence to support the idea that women have a more subtle sense of smell then men because they had to decide what foods were good to eat and what might be poisonous. Our sense of smell also has a defensive blockade built in so that the same aroma will be blocked after it is introduced by olfactory sensation. This is a protection against particularly noxious odors. When you read a book the author will quite often evoke the external sensations to engage your imagination but much more rarely smell or taste. Even though we eat every day, scenes in fiction depicting tasting and smelling are rare. It's easier to "paint a picture" of external details than to arouse the reader's internal sensations. This is true of movies and TV entertainment as well, although the Food Network has successfully exploited our natural sensory appetite. Words, it turns out are simply inadequate in capturing the subtle nature of aroma and taste. In formal tasting exercises the only recourse is a shared vocabulary. That's the idea behind the
"aroma wheel" developed at the University of California in Davis to formalize the categories of smell in wine tasting. If you had to describe what vanilla tastes like how would you do it? What about melon or the smell of woodland pastures on a spring morning? Its not as tough to describe what a melon or a pasture looks like. This is the quandary facing wine tasters that leads to the seemingly absurd descriptors utilized to evoke wine aroma and flavor. Everything from blackberry and mint to tar, coffee, pencil shavings, black licorice and even cat's pee on elderberry. Some descriptors seem to make sense but others are outlandish ... until you try for yourself. If there are 10,000 and more possibilities it seems inevitable that eventually you'll have to use odd combinations of words that get as close as possible to what you're perceiving. And even then, there is no certainty that your perceptions are identical to another taster's. When it comes to taste, a separate sensation that turns out to be integrated with smell, there are four, or perhaps five flavor components to deal with; sweet, salty, bitter, sour and the recently added umami. These flavors are picked up by the taste buds that are on your tongue and in your mouth. Most foods and drinks excite more than one of the five flavors but some are pretty onedimensional and can be agreed upon to characterize the flavor. Lemon juice is sour, white sugar is sweet, radicchio is bitter and salt is, well ... salty. What about umami? Umami is a Japanese word. It's a pleasant savory taste that can be detected in meat, fish vegetables and dairy products although it is rarely as distinct and separable as the other four. Umami blends with other taste sensations to add dimension and roundness so, I'm personally still on the fence about whether it is a distinct fifth flavor. Flavors are, however more objective, and they can be more readily agreed upon, but in your mouth food vaporizes and rises up through neo-nasal passageways to find, once again your olfactory bulb. Thus, as you "taste" you also smell, and taste is greatly magnified by the aromas that accompany it. That's why your sense of taste seems to be so blunt when you're congested. Your tongue is tasting without the benefit of the olfactory stimulation. Recent studies have concluded that all our sensations work together and that emotion and memory really plays a part in how we perceive and interpret the world around us. When we eat and drink we cannot entirely ignore cultural disposition or personal attitudes. Some of us don't like spicy things, some don't like astringent things, some of us are put off by aromas, textures or flavors that others find irresistible. It has even been shown that our values and assumptions can be confused by simple tricks like dying white wine red or being told that a cheap item is actually very expensive. There are different theories of how and why we form our tastes. Some would say there are "tolerant tasters" and "sensitive tasters", "expectant palates" or "experimental palates". All would agree that these characterizations are external models that may or may not exactly fit the reality of your individual, internal tastes. It is also becoming clear that even disciplined, experienced tasters do not consistently reach the same conclusions in repeated tests. That, to me is the ultimate proof that your taste is your own. My final advice would be to indulge your taste and eat and drink mindfully.
Warren Gregory can be reached at warren@warrenswineworld.com. Have a wine related question or live in or near the Twin Cities in Minnesota? Plan a wine event. Warren is a certified sommelier and writes professionally and leads classes in wine tasting and knowledge. Visit http://www.warrengonwine.typepad.com for more fun information on wine and Warren's adventures in wine and food.
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==== ==== Get Umami back in your Food !! http://bit.ly/Fusioncuisine ==== ====