Page 54 - Thirst Magazine Issue 1 (Feb 2017)

SWEETNESS

AND BITTERNESS

– COMPLEXITY IN SIMPLICITY

As early as age two, most
of us would have developed

the ability to taste. As we
get older, flavours become
more familiar to us, and
we grow more confident
in our ability to discern THERE ARE 4 FUNDAMENTAL

different flavours. REASONS WHY THIS HAPPENS:

By SK Leng, Constant Gardener RAW SENSORS
Coffee, Penang The ability to taste is highly dependent on the
taste buds, which are raw sensors in our body
that detect taste. These are vulnerable to a
o best illustrate how flavours are number of things, for example, age and gender.
formed, imagine two contrasting tastes Age has a huge effect on our sense of
such as sweetness and bitterness. hearing, sight, smell and taste - these senses tend
When we think about these flavours, to degrade as a person ages.
Twe know immediately what each In terms of gender, women (as child
tastes like. But how? Through memory, certainly. bearers) are genetically more sensitive to
But when tasting in real time, flavours are flavours and possess a better sense of taste
actually a combination of what we smell in the compared to men. This is an evolutionary
nose, taste on the tongue and feel in the mouth. requirement because poisonous, harmful
You would think that regular practice at compounds are often sour or bitter.
tasting many flavours would make a person
more confident in identifying different flavours.
However, at Constant Gardener Coffee, the
reverse is true. Here, taste is taken to a whole THEREFORE, PEOPLE OF
new level by our Sensory Researchers who
run experiments with different customers to DIFFERENT AGES AND
gather information on how different people GENDERS HAVE DIFFERENT
perceive flavours differently. An example of one
such experiment is how the same coffee could SENSITIVITIES TO TASTE
be served at three different temperatures or
densities to observe the changes in responses in
terms of “quality.”
Subsequently, Sensory Researchers draw RELATIVITY
hypotheses based on the patterns observed. When we examine the balance and nature
The more they learn and discover from the of flavours, we can observe a phenomenon
customers, the more doubtful they are of similar to an optical illusion – it’s all relative.
whether what they are personally experiencing Although something may be both sweet
is even real. and bitter, when we taste more sweetness

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