Photo Credit: Agent 485
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder- but what about taste? Many don’t realize that flavor is found in the part of the brain where touch, smell, and vision are found. Flavor is very hard to define because it is abstract, and it is emotional and at times personal. I despise the taste of tomato and I thought back to when I started hating that flavor. I attribute it to the great breakup of 2004, and yes, I was eating spaghetti. Just to be clear, flavor is built off 6 key elements: basic tastes, sensations, textures, aromas, emotions, and appearances. Let’s focus on appearance and being able to taste with our eyes. How many times have you seen a drink, walked across a busy restaurant dining room and it looked refreshing, crisp, light, and ohhh that garnish. It made you ask the server what that drink was and then you ordered one for yourself. On the other hand, have you been served a drink that had brown mint or a dried out lime? You automatically assumed the drink tasted horrible and that the drink was poorly made just based off the drink’s appearance.
This is because we eat and drink with our eyes. When I create cocktails for customers, I keep one thing in mind… that color plays an important visual role as it serves as a glimpse into what we are about to drink. Many restaurants and bars report higher cocktail sales when they provide a picture of the cocktail on the menu with the recipe. Take a look at your social media blogs and count how many people take pictures of what they are about to eat and drink – a bragging of sorts with childhood chants of “You don’t got what I got…nanny nanny boo boo!!” We all want what we can’t have, especially when the picture of the cocktail serves as eye candy and draws a craving.
Try this at home with a friend- taste with your eyes closed. Have someone give you various juices or bits of food and see if you can identify the flavor without actually seeing it. I tried this experiment on a group of adults and almost everyone thought that carrot juice was all other fruit BUT carrot juice. The minute they took off their blindfolds they instantly proclaimed CARROT JUICE! All could not tell the difference between lime, lemon, and ruby red juice- but once you see the fruit you could easily differentiate.
So, tell me… Does the visual below entice you to drop what you are doing, run to your local watering hole, and order a cocktail? Cheers
