Page 23 - #57 English

CAN SMELL BE TRAINED?

As we mentioned previously, brain can distinguish an
aroma by memorizing it. Although the memory is a result
of long-term accumulation, it can be acquired quickly from
intensive and strengthen training.
First of all, we need to believe in our noses. Olfactory cells on the nasal
mucosa can feel thousands of different compounds of gaseous phosphate in
one time, not only their kind but also their strength. On average, every per-
son can distinguish 2000 to 4000 different smells. Of course the sensitivity
of smell differs one from another, but after training, highly developed olfac-
tory memory plays a more important role than the innate sense of smell.
Coffee tasters usually use smelling-jars methods; the most popular of
them is one called ‘Coffee Nose’ by SCAA, which includes 36 fragrant jars
that are given to 4 groups of people to smell and identify several groups of
smells: fermented group, caramel group, carbonized group and defective
group. Fermented group is a group of the most volatile aromatic substances,
and floral / fruit / herb aromas are most often found in freshly roasted and
ground coffee powder. Caramel group is formed during the caramelization,
including nutty/brown sugar/cocoa fragrances. Carbonized group is the
least volatile one, having lipids/ spices/ charcoal fragrances, which are
commonly found in dark roasted coffee.
Training process is to smell and match again and again, to build the
olfactory memory on these 4 groups. For example, when we smell the nutty
fragrance, we can search the most related odor and describe it as “roast
almond” or “roast peanut”. Olfactory memory on one coffee can be built by
distinguishing 3 to 4 fragrances. Next time we smell the similar fragrance
mix on a coffee, we can preliminarily evaluate it might be washed Yirgacheff
or Mandheling.

CAN SMELL AFFECT TASTE?

When we taste certain food or drinks, if pinch our nos-
es, we may have quite different experience. Actually, most
of the flavors that we know are forms of smells - scientists
consider that 75%-95% so-called tastes are coming from
smell. Without the smell, taste will be dull and flat. Without smell,
we could not feel the beautiful aroma of coffee or even identify
its taste like sour, sweet or bitter. The identification of flavors
like the ones of flowers, fruits and nuts, is more dependable on
smell sense; the existence of different fragrances improves
a lot the complexity of coffee flavors. So next time, why
not to pinch your nose while drinking washed Yirgacheffe,
which is supposed to have rich floral fragrance? Perhaps
you will just feel acidity and sweetness of normal kind
of coffee, but not the magical flavor of specialty coffee.
Smell sense is so important that it affects our food
appreciation, impression of people and space and even
our emotional memory. Only if we pay a little attention
to fragrances around us every day, we will have more in-
teresting sensations. So please embrace this little trick that
sense of smell plays with the rest of our senses!

25