Mapping aromas

Interesting, I guess I just always thought of it being subjective and not really able to be turned scientific... but I can see how it could be done. Like, I'm slightly color blind to a few shades of green/brown so I just accept that people see things differently, same for smells and tastes. Scientifically though for colors there are very specific, constant, wavelengths involved... however you could show me the findings and tell me, and while I'd believe it, I wouldn't see or experience it myself.

It's a really interesting adventure for thought though.

- Dominic

[snip]

I sit in on a wine-tasting class every fall... every fall there is a presentation by a researcher from Cornell University's Agricultural Experiment Station, Terry Acree. [What follows is MY summary of his research, which, of course, is deeply suspect!]

His research shows that MOST people are "smell-blind" to a large number of smell-components, creating large numbers of sets of tasters... he's talking about 40 or so different smeller profiles these days. He says that just because YOU love particular traits of given wine X doesn't mean it'll be an easy job to find others who will understand your experience.

This Cornell research highlights the subjective aspects of smell(/ taste). The article Lew sent us seems to be all about "objective" aspects of smell... but if none of us is "all-smelling," it seems this research will have little to say to us as we taste our tea.

james-henry

A bit more:

Terry Acree is obviously one of the leaders in the area of olfaction research. His research proposes new approaches, and, given time, he has shot down some of his own proposals too. I told you I hear annual updates in a wine class, and he always seems to have *new* things to say.

He's easy to Google, and one of the articles I just glanced over talks about *training* mice/people to perceive smells they wouldn't otherwise:

So-- If we can *train* ourselves to "get" certain elusive smells, maybe there *is* hope for growing our tea palates!

My warning about my interpretations of Prof. Acree's research was there for a good reason ;)

james-henry

It sounds like they've refined the "picture" of smell a bit in the last few years...the Japanese smell recorder from 2006

uses 96 different compounds whereas this smell map only uses 40.

--Michael J. Coffey--

Ironic, isn't it?

How is this beneficial to us?

Kevo

It's good to be able to systematize things and not just rely on the airy-fairy "subjective." Toci

the big problem i have is qualifying smells/tastes to a certain plant/ spice/fruit etc and that's from not having any "standard" sample to compare to and not having a large experience of different smells and tastes

Well, this is just a speculation, and a wildly optimistic one at that, but: maybe at some point in the future we'll be able to get an idea of what's in the package by reading the label?

For the record, I'm respiring normally, not holding my breath.

But seriously, and aside from any expectation of how this might change tea commerce, I feel that if I'm really interested in an area of life I should welcome anyone who honestly tries to understand it. That includes scientists.

/Lew

Absolutely! me2. I often feel like saying "If I was pressed, I would have to say this tea has a vaguely buttery (or almond, or ...) aroma, but at the same time there is such vast difference between " tea-almondy " and " almond-almondy " that I can't help but feel it's more deceptive (not in a malicious sense) than helpful.

I think it is possible to systematize scent profiles, but the experience of it for individuals might still largely be subjective. Still, how is this systematized profile of scent beneficial to us when it comes to tea? Being subjective is not airy-fairy, but what is unique and personal. If I were to describe that a wild grown puerh smelled like the forest in dawn, science might be able to support this description by locating the related molecules for the two smells, but how our brains perceive that description may still be quite subjective.

Kevo, revelling in his new Asus Eepc...

I prefer they invent a strip which we can smell and taste before buying the tea! :")

Kevo

Cool! And it hasn't hurt your ability to type, by the evidence. You got the Linux version, right?

/Lew

I'm taking a wild guess it is the 900, and not the 701, unless Kevo has pianist hands. If only they would announce the 900 with the Atom, or else the MSI Wind/ECS G10IL may be in my future. The wait is killing me. Between that and Monday's WWDC for Apple It's like Christmas morning anticipation for a geek like me. :)

- Dominic