http://www.tastescience.com/saggitalbrain.jpg
Why is it that eating sometimes provides incredible enjoyment – well . . . until we overeat and groan in pain. The nerves from our taste buds along with those from our sense of smell input signals to our brain that triggers our emotions. What kind of emotions? Anywhere from, “Oh man, I can’t believe how good this tastes!” to “Yuck! That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted!”
Nerves from those emotion centers are also very close to that part of our brain that allows us to make decisions – do we spit it out or take another bite?
The more I investigate taste, the more it is turning out to be more complicated than I ever thought. But here is what I would like to do: come up with a little method by which we stop and think about the taste, the smell, and the mental images that come to us when we are eating or drinking. We may not become professional tasters for a gourmet magazine, but we can at least build a little muscle in our palate to begin enjoying the finer subtleties of good coffee.
Tags: Coffee Tasting, science of coffee
