The food that we eat has always tasted bland when we had a cold. That is because it is the nose that is responsible for helping us taste the true flavors. Now a company has introduced a novel concept of enhancing the gastronomic experience, without actually adding any flavors to the food.
Molecule-R has introduced ‘Aroma R-evolution’, a kit, it claims will allow to trick our brains into thinking we’re actually tasting something, when in reality, we are just smelling it. The primary concept behind the idea lies in the way we actually ‘taste’ our food.
Our taste buds allow us to differentiate only the very basic characteristics of food. They are able to identify and decipher fundamental taste groups like sweet, salty, bitter and sour. We use our noses to sense the more subtle flavors. Our sense of smell is what allows us to really enjoy fine wines, delicately seasoned broths and complex curries. It is our nose or more specifically, the olfactory nerve cells that help us distinguish between the myriad ‘tastes’.
The “ Aroma R-evolution ” kit comes with four forks and 21 vials full of scents like strawberry, wasabi, peanut and many more, reported NPR . The company urges us to put a few drops of these delectable scents onto a paper tab inserted at the base of the fork. The company claims the smells that fork will emit, will subtly flavor the food that we will eat while using the special cutlery or silverware. Speaking about the product, Sophie Bovin of Molecule-R, the company that makes these kits, said,
“The fork is designed not so much to use as an everyday utensil but rather, a tool to experiment. It’s interesting to try classic pairings and see if you can trick your brain into believing that baked potatoes scented with butter taste as good as baked potatoes with real butter.”
However, Sophie urges food experimenters to test unusual combinations like dabbing the fork with wasabi scent and digging into a tub of chocolate ice-cream or putting a few drops of strawberry scent and eating a rather boring plate of broccoli, reported WUWM .
The company does admit that the kit is more experimental than mainstream commercial and should be treated as such. Hence they caution that some combinations and even some scents might not seem completely authentic as smells , unlike sights and sounds, are extremely difficult to replicate.
[Image Credit | Claire Eggers/ NPR ]
