Scientific American article on magnifying taste

For those who are really into Darcy's presentation on sensory perception at TOTC (which he's now posted on his site), here's the link to the SA article (August 08 issue) on taste: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=magnifying-taste Sphere: Related Content

TOTC Sensory Perception

Great presentation by Darcy O'Neil on sensory perception. I remember a lot of this from college, but clearly there have been advances in knowledge in the past 30 years. The fun part of the event was the taster evaluation. People fall into three categories: non-taster, normal, and super taster. All refer to the ability/senstitivity to taste bitterness. There is a chemical test strip we were handed to put on your tongue that made it pretty clear what category you fit in. The key point though is if you're a bartender, chef or someone whose palate is a judge for others...you have to know where your perceptions are before preparing for others. E.g. a super taster is very sensitive to bitters so would make a very different tasting Negroni than a non-taster. Sphere: Related Content