In our journey to explore interesting whiskies, we often do more than just sample the whisky alone.
In our January session, we started with a little experiment.
Our host reminded us that the sensory perception of taste is limited to just 5 – sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami.
Do you trust me?
He then instructed us to hold our nose, pop a powder from a vial into our mouth and taste it – still keeping our nose plugged.
The immediate taste was sweet like brown sugar.
He then requested we unplug our nose – instant recognition of cinnamon! Which was completely absent without the sense of smell.
All this to remind us just how important the sense of smell is to what we perceive as flavours.
So when we nose our whisky then savour on our palate, what we perceive as ‘taste’ is powerfully influenced by our sense of smell.
Put another way… don’t waste good whisky by sipping it when you have a nasty cold!
Mystery vials
Whiskies sampled in our January tasting session:
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That sounds like a really interesting experiment. You really didn’t pick it as cinnamon until you unblocked your nose? That’s great. Just goes to show how much of taste smell makes up.
I’ve made the mistake of drinking some nice whiskies for the first time with a cold – and was pleasantly surprised when I returned to them and found so many extra flavours!
Keep on waffling,
Nick
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Really and truly… not even a hint!
And like you… I’ve also made the mistake of sampling with a stuffed nose… just not a fair or fun way to experience a whisky at all!
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