March: What Is Taste?

What is taste?

Firstly, taste is subjective, our goal in Cheesemongering is to convey an experience in a way that is discernible, relatable, consistent and objective. With access to 200+ manufacturers and 2000+ cheeses it becomes important to succinctly describe a cheese, its origins and convey the flavour to the client. 

Taste can be broken down into 5 main categories and then further by our sense of smell. Our taste buds handle: 

Taste

Examples

Savoury (Umami)

Vegemite, Soy, Sauce, Dry Aged Meats

Sweet

Sugar, Honey, Lactose, Caramel

Sour

Lemons, Vinegar, Sour Cream

Bitter

Radicchio, Caffeine, Cocoa

Salty

Salt

Often when running our sensory evaluation workshops we come across conflict and having come from a coffee background as a barista myself people can confuse tastes easily. Is it bitter or is it sour? Is it salty or is it Umami? In both cases the answer can be difficult to separate. This is the point of food, it’s not often that we isolate a flavour unless in competition or in food science. Foods are generally a harmonious balance of the five main tastes. 

Sensory evaluation workshops for groups of up to 6 available. 

Our individual Taste memory is based on experience and it develops, waxes and wanes as we go through life. As a child we had extra bitter receptors making things like broccoli taste terrible. 

Recent research indicated we may have receptors for fat, alkaline (the opposite of sour), watery and metallic tastes. This would go a long way to explaining why taste is both subjective and complex and varies wildly from person to person. 

We’re going to use triple cream brie as an example across our chapter on taste. 

Applying the above principles to triple cream brie would generally taste sweet, savoury, salty, and a little fatty. 

We have covered the essence of taste, now let’s quickly cover the other senses at play. 

Sensation

Have you ever tasted a menthol lozenge? The coolness that envelops your mouth is a sensation, rather than a flavour. The same goes for the astringency from tannic wines or cinnamon. Or perhaps heat, spiciness, which triggers your pain receptors. Triple cream brie could give the sensation of calcium and heartiness. 

Texture

Texture and taste are another conundrum, they are inextricably linked and yet offer such different experiences, something can both taste creamy, as in taste like cream, and be creamy, as in have a creamy texture. Triple cream brie could be described with texture terms such as: sticky, creamy.

Aroma

Aroma is what your nose, or more specifically your olfactory bulb. We perceive aroma both from our nose and as we chew and swallow food. This is where more complex and nuanced flavours come into play. For example a triple cream brie would have the aroma of straw, raw mushroom, milk and a little lactic ferment. 

And the rest

The three other categories that make up what we taste are

• Intensity, how much of a flavour we perceive, quantified on a scale from 1-10

• Deliciousness, how satisfying a taste, quantified on a scale of one 1-10 but also subject to personal preference. For example, one person may be absolutely obsessed with texture and think a triple cream brie is the most delicious thing they have ever tasted. . 

• Complexity; what is happening in a cheese, does every bite, chew and swallow reveal something new? For example, a triple cream brie, on a scale from 1-10 may only score a 2, whereas a raw milk, clothbound cheddar may score an 8.