May 11, 2022

OLIVE OIL TASTING 3: SMELL

LESSON 3

Tasting Olive Oil “In Pills” Blog Series.

Do you want to become a real Olive Oil expert and be able to taste its flavors and aromas?

It’s necessary to slow down and take time to “observe” and appreciate aromas to move your approach to food from simple eating to a pleasurable experience.

Here we go with some basic rules and notions you need to be able to enjoy your food and your EVOO the most.

Not only what we eat but how we eat influences how we feel

SMELL

A smell can be captured by 2 senses: the nose and mouth.

Smell through the nose = Olfactory Analysis

SMELL

The smell is a sharp sense and captures ( reception) dozens of aromas, recognizes and reacts to them.
We smell aromas through the nose.

Aromas are volatile ( called volatile compounds) and vaporize at room temperature.

THE RECEPTORS

The aromas, once inhaled, dissolve in the mucus and reach a tissue at the top of the nasal cavity, behind the eyes.
The receptors capture the aromas in this tissue and send a message to the brain.

The aromas are determined by the olive cultivar, irrigation, fruit maturity, and harvest techniques.

BRAIN MEMORY BANK

If we build some smells memory in our brain’s memory bank, the brain will be able to recognize, name, label, and describe ( with the proper standard words) the aroma perceived.

TRAIN YOUR SENSES

To translate sensory perceptions into words, we must train our sense of smell to make reliable distinctions.

We need to start smelling, tasting, and storing sensory information to use the potential of our senses fully.

Smell through the mouth

RETRO-NASAL PASSAGE

How does it happen that we can “smell” while eating?

The answer is thanks to the retro-nasal passage. The nose and mouth share a passage called the retro-nasal passage.

OTHER RECEPTORS

Here, other receptors can capture the aromas in the nasal passage when the food is in the mouth. So, while the tasting, you’ll continue to perceive and record aromas when you start tasting the olive oil!

To translate sensory perceptions into words, we must train our sense of smell to make reliable distinctions. We need to start smelling, tasting, storing sensory information to use the potential of our senses fully.

A SECOND MESSAGE

What happens is that while chewing with a closed mouth, the air we breathe in and out brings the aromas from the mouth up to the retro-nasal receptors, sending a second message to the brain.

FLAVOR COMPOUNDS OR FLAVORS
This second sensory perception is called: ( not taste – not aromas ) but flavor compounds or simply flavors.