Beginner’s Mouthfeel

There are many factors that influence the perspective of taste. While everyone’s senses are different, there are some constants. One fundamental constant is taste buds. The tongue can distinguish five known tastes. These include sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami – or savory. The way we taste these flavors is through taste buds, which are small pores that send signals to the brain depending on the region of the tongue affected. This is where some subjectivity comes into play. If a substance has a complex profile of flavors, the tongue can easily miss them. Taste buds that are damaged, old, or infected can cause certain flavors to not be apparent or to overpower other flavors. Another factor for missing complexities could be that your palate has not been cleansed. This simply means that taste buds are still influenced by previous flavors. Cleansing or resetting your palate is a very simple practice that can greatly enhance your food and beverage experience. 

When cleansing your palate, it is important to know what you want to taste. The most common palate cleansers include bread, sorbet, pickled ginger, and water. These are all neutral substances that scrub lingering flavors off the tongue. Sorbet, not to be confused with sherbet, is a frozen dessert that contains no dairy and is made of fruit and water. The sharp flavor and lower temperature stimulate the taste buds for future flavor reception. Bread can be used in many forms to cleanse the palate as long as it is not flavored. Crackers also fall under the bread category and should be used with the same restrictions of being unflavored. For optimal tasting experience, certain foods and beverages should be avoided. Any dairy, such as butter, will coat the taste buds and trap previous flavors.

It is important to remember that anything you ingest can subsequently affect how future flavors are perceived. If you are wanting to taste finer nuances and complexities, a clean palate will be your best bet for tasting as many dimensions of a flavor profile as possible.