Taste, Aroma, Flavour

Taste, aroma, flavour and texture are just as important in our appreciation of food as they are in our enjoyment of whisky.

And it’s important to remember that taste is subjective when it comes to both so the flavours that I like might not appeal to someone else. There is a difference between taste and flavour. We only taste salt, sweet, sour and bitter, but now we also talk about umami as our fifth taste. Discovered by a Japanese scientist, umami is the name for a taste driven by glutamic acid, which is present in ingredients such as tomatoes and seaweed and also occurs in culinary processes like curing, smoking, drying and fermenting. The Japanese discovery has given us a great word for a taste that is otherwise difficult to describe. In combination, these five tastes can balance each other – for example, sour can lift sweet and salt can tame bitter. Flavour, on the other hand, is a combination of taste and aroma. Our noses play a huge part in the overall enjoyment of food; in fact, aroma is reputed to account for 95% of our taste. Aroma awakens our senses and stimulates the brain – think of that welcome whiff of freshly ground coffee beans in the morning. This is where spices and herbs wield their influence and add to the balance and character of a dish, whether with a seductive and warming fragrance or a refreshing and cleansing zing.