I Don't Smell No More, But Now Do 6 Tastes
No, what I mean is I ain't in the roasting loop anymore--my clothes don't give away that I was just roasting beans. So my new role, new myself, is as a Gimme correspondent to be known as r. e. (roaster emeritus). . .
. . . assignment I have been on is getting in touch with the man, il Professore at Scuola di Espresso, our Italian connection.
When found recently, he says: "I am reminding you that it is now savvy as cuppers to speak of 6, that is six, rather than the used-to-be 4, tastes when you are bent over the cupping table."
"Go on professor, tell me again", I says:
"My friend, we are now talking about more recent work. There are the original 4: sweet, sour, salt, and bitter."
See American Heritage Dictionary, defining taste as "the sense that distinguishes the sweet, sour, salty, and bitter qualities of dissolved substances in contact with the taste buds on the tongue", found in Utermohlen, Taste Science (2006, unpublished).
"For the past few years there is a developing chord in tasting literature for the sense of UMAMI. For example, you can look at The Fifth Taste: Cooking With Umami by the Kasabians (2006)."
I myself found it mentioned just recently in "Yes, MSG, the Secret Behind the Savor", by Julia Moskin in March 5, 2009 NYTimes. Umami is the taste of fat, or more accurately the taste of glutamate, a protein, the taste of meat, hence savory. More on glutamate in a moment.
"Next", says il Professore, "the more recent and less recognized is the TRIGEMINAL sensation, connected with the nervous reaction to heat, to pain, the work of Professor Virginia Utermohlen at Cornell. It comes across in the cup as a startling breathiness, like a powerful breath mint. The trigeminal reaction is more closely related to the sense of touch than to taste really, as in how we perceive texture or mouthfeel. This sense is the way we tell temperature, coolness of mint, citrus, the hotness of habanero "
I go to the cupping table to invent the 6 tastes and work through them. It's not difficult, but there are surprises in store.
Sweet can be various kinds of sugar, cane, raw, turbinado for different sweet, salt the same, rough, fine, sea salt, gray, red, fleur de mer, sour, the best are vitamin C, ascorbic acid or sour salt, citric acid, bitter, try the white inner lining of grapefruit toasted slightly for intense bitter, or bitters for bar drinks, manhattans, or get pharmaceutical caffeine crystals.
One needs glutamate for umami. For tasting, there is MSG from the grocery self in the Asian cooking section, the once dreaded ingredient, a well-known Japanese brand, now curiously made in Peru. From a 60's food scare, our moms forbade MSG; now, it shows up as a common food additive, it or something like it, labeled as soy protein or hydolized yeast or just plain glutamate. It is a surprisingly rich, round, reassuringly buttery taste, that is--feel. It is a true resonant note of a great shot, adding depth and texture, fantastic finish.
For trigeminal, grab the most powerful breath mint and crush it. Test for the intensity of your own reaction.
The Professore has one more suggestion: "It is not so much distinguishing the four or six individual tastes from or among themselves, but dipping your finger into two, three, then four and tasting. So, salt and sugar enhance each other; that is why cocoa without salt is flat. Citric acid and sugar become fizzy in the mouth. The combination of sour and sweet simply does that and it is practiced widely in mass food industry. In further combining these six, you are creating real mystery, real nuance that is so much like the great shots we are after."
Then the Professore turns to pull a shot on an E 61, a beaut thing.
"Okay, ciao for now, Professore, until next time. . . ."
r. e.
When found recently, he says: "I am reminding you that it is now savvy as cuppers to speak of 6, that is six, rather than the used-to-be 4, tastes when you are bent over the cupping table."
"Go on professor, tell me again", I says:
"My friend, we are now talking about more recent work. There are the original 4: sweet, sour, salt, and bitter."
See American Heritage Dictionary, defining taste as "the sense that distinguishes the sweet, sour, salty, and bitter qualities of dissolved substances in contact with the taste buds on the tongue", found in Utermohlen, Taste Science (2006, unpublished).
"For the past few years there is a developing chord in tasting literature for the sense of UMAMI. For example, you can look at The Fifth Taste: Cooking With Umami by the Kasabians (2006)."
I myself found it mentioned just recently in "Yes, MSG, the Secret Behind the Savor", by Julia Moskin in March 5, 2009 NYTimes. Umami is the taste of fat, or more accurately the taste of glutamate, a protein, the taste of meat, hence savory. More on glutamate in a moment.
"Next", says il Professore, "the more recent and less recognized is the TRIGEMINAL sensation, connected with the nervous reaction to heat, to pain, the work of Professor Virginia Utermohlen at Cornell. It comes across in the cup as a startling breathiness, like a powerful breath mint. The trigeminal reaction is more closely related to the sense of touch than to taste really, as in how we perceive texture or mouthfeel. This sense is the way we tell temperature, coolness of mint, citrus, the hotness of habanero "
I go to the cupping table to invent the 6 tastes and work through them. It's not difficult, but there are surprises in store.
Sweet can be various kinds of sugar, cane, raw, turbinado for different sweet, salt the same, rough, fine, sea salt, gray, red, fleur de mer, sour, the best are vitamin C, ascorbic acid or sour salt, citric acid, bitter, try the white inner lining of grapefruit toasted slightly for intense bitter, or bitters for bar drinks, manhattans, or get pharmaceutical caffeine crystals.
One needs glutamate for umami. For tasting, there is MSG from the grocery self in the Asian cooking section, the once dreaded ingredient, a well-known Japanese brand, now curiously made in Peru. From a 60's food scare, our moms forbade MSG; now, it shows up as a common food additive, it or something like it, labeled as soy protein or hydolized yeast or just plain glutamate. It is a surprisingly rich, round, reassuringly buttery taste, that is--feel. It is a true resonant note of a great shot, adding depth and texture, fantastic finish.
For trigeminal, grab the most powerful breath mint and crush it. Test for the intensity of your own reaction.
The Professore has one more suggestion: "It is not so much distinguishing the four or six individual tastes from or among themselves, but dipping your finger into two, three, then four and tasting. So, salt and sugar enhance each other; that is why cocoa without salt is flat. Citric acid and sugar become fizzy in the mouth. The combination of sour and sweet simply does that and it is practiced widely in mass food industry. In further combining these six, you are creating real mystery, real nuance that is so much like the great shots we are after."
Then the Professore turns to pull a shot on an E 61, a beaut thing.
"Okay, ciao for now, Professore, until next time. . . ."
r. e.
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Jeff Apr 8, 2009 – 1:48 PM
Totally rad, John!