Food & Fragrance

The pleasure of flavour is twofold. Firstly, there is taste experienced on the tongue (think of a rush of sweetness or sourness that makes your mouth water). We have five tastes: joining sweet and sour are salty, bitter and savoury (umami). Then there is fragrance, an infinitely broader category of airbound compounds sensed by the olfactory receptors in our nose. This is how we pick up on the nuances that elevate a food beyond its leading characteristics.

Try this with dark chocolate: hold your nose and put a piece in your mouth, letting it melt slowly on your tongue. You’ll be able to pick up sweetness, bitterness, maybe a little acidity. Now release your nose and notice how the full chocolatiness washes over you.