One of my friends remarked, “ Sandy, you got an interesting job, you always get to party, get people drunk and you make your money” and I just smiled back in acknowledgment of his words. I was way too busy behind the bar belting out my concoctions on my bar shift, but felt a great urge to make him understand the nuances of my job. Well, here is the first hand read of what job I do.
We are bar chefs.
Whenever I undertake consulting jobs, I always ask the management about their concept, vision and menu. It helps me understand the target customer behaviors and their drinking patterns. It also excites me to create a cocktail and wine menu that compliments the food. It’s an exciting challenge like the famous ad for “Kohler” taps. The tap is the key subject; now design a house around it. Similarly, I would like, one day a chef to accept the challenge- this is my cocktail menu, design your dishes around it.
Whether you are a Chef or Mixologist, it is important to refine and develop your palate to understand the flavours when making any well balanced serve.
What we refer to, as our “palate” is really how we taste with our various senses. Each sense reacts differently. While creating a perfect serve, we as chefs or mixologists, need to blend all our sensory experiences harmoniously. It does not happen overnight. There are several ways that you can improve your palate and over time you’ll be surprised at how differently you perceive the taste of spirits as you detect their subtle nuances.
Having the ability to recognise key flavours can help you craft a well-balanced serve and also help you create exciting new cocktails. Most importantly you will not only be able to give your customers the best recommendation that suits the flavours they are looking but also an experience which will set you apart from the rest.
In order to identify various sensory experiences, we need to learn
- How to evaluate by sight, nose and taste
- Use of appropriate vocabulary
- Understand “Umami”
- Various factors apart from senses that influence our evaluation
What senses do we use?
Ranges of senses are used when eating or drinking. These senses are
Sight (Define the sight evaluation on the following parameters)
- Color
- Transparency or opaqueness
- Dullness or gloss
- Size
- Shape
- Amount
- Defects, decay, infestation
Smell (Evaluation by nose is done for the following)
- Aroma- Fruits, Flowers, Vegetables, Grains, Botanicals, Oaky, Sweetness, Citrusy
- Condition- Clean, Feints, Woody, Stale, Taints, Fresh
- Intensity-Neutral, Light, Medium, Pronounced
- Maturation- Un-aged, Short aged, Matured
Touch (Texture- Tactile)
- Qualities felt with fingers, tongue, palate, teeth
- Index of quality
- Smoothness, stickiness, graininess
- Crispness, crunch
Taste The tongue can detect five basic tastes:
- Bitter
- Salt
- Sour
- Sweet
- Umami
Tongue plays an important factor for taste evaluations. The tongue is the main sensory organ of the taste sense. The upper surface of a tongue is covered with taste buds that contain taste receptors. The human tongue has on average 3,000 – 10,000 taste buds. The bumps we can see on the tongue are called papillae. Taste buds sit on top of these papillae but are not visible to the human eye. There are five elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami (or savory).
It is a myth that different tastes come from different areas of the tongue, these tastes can all be detected anywhere on the tongue.
The taste sensitivity is dependent on the following factors:
- Taste affected by other stimuli
- Time: Location of taste buds
- Threshold-Concentration required for substance identification
- Sub-threshold-Substance not identified, but will affect perception of another taste. For instance if salt is added to fresh lime soda sweet, it will increase the sweetness but decrease the sourness of the drink.
- Temperature affects flavor in the following manner:
- Warm foods taste stronger and sweeter than cold foods;
- Salt stronger in warm foods
- Volatility of substances increase at warm temperatures, so they smell stronger-pungency
- Taste buds most receptive at temperatures between 68-860F
- Psychological factors
- Flavor perceptions based on color, color intensity, texture (thickness)
- General health and well-being
- Time of day
- Adaptation-Previous exposure to substance, especially salt tastes.
- Olfactory – Smell
- Ability to detect chemicals dissolved in air
- Aroma impacts on taste
- Don’t taste greasy, chocolate, mint – smell, mouth feel, or combination
- Varies over the lifespan
- Highest taste sensitivity occurs in babies
- Number of taste cells in humans declines with age
- Serious decline in taste cell numbers begins ~45 y.o.
- By 70 greatly lowered ability to taste
- Other Factors
- Social and Family
- Cultural
- Religious beliefs
- Nutrition and Health
- Economic and Marketplace factors
- Technological developments
- Emotional and psychological factors
What is Umami?
Umami is a savoury taste, often known as the fifth taste. It is a subtle taste and blends well with other tastes. Most people do not recognise the taste unless attention is especially drawn to it.
After eating Cheddar cheese or tomatoes, there may be a “savoury” taste lingering- this is umami
Tasting Flavour Wheel
The perfect way to help develop your palate is to become more familiar with some key flavours. Use flavour wheel to help you as every genre of food and beverage have tasting wheel charts. It becomes easier for you to relate and recognise the smells, aromas, flavors etc for your sensory evaluations.
Always ensure you are comparing other spirits from the same category
- Jot down your thoughts on everything you are tasting so you don’t forget
- Always taste from lightest strength to the strongest strength spirit
- Ensure liquid is always at room temperature
- Do not taste too many samples in one tasting
- Do the tasting in daylight to be able to see the natural colors of the liquid
- Take your time
A combination of these senses enables you to evaluate food and beverages.
Well, a Chef or a Mixologist develops his serve keeping all these factors in mind. Not all people perceive the flavors, aromas in a similar fashion; hence the sword of judgment is always hanging over these two creative genres of professionals. Creating a dish or cocktail is a very sensitive task. A thorough knowledge of smells, textures and aromas to create not a serve but a “Wow” experience for a customer through their well-executed workmanship is required.
Phew! It’s indeed an interesting job.
