Beth Kimmerle

It is true.

That's 100% true.

So if you were to hold your nose and eat a, let's call it strawberry jelly bean, so you're not using your nasal cavity, it's going to taste off or flat just because you're only tasting sweet.

So

Aromas are really the indicator.

Aroma is the indicator of taste and the ability to taste.

If your nasal cavity is blocked, you know, if you're sick, much of food flavor disappears.

And so that's the proof that taste buds aren't, you know, they're just a starting point.

And aroma plays into taste heavily.

And it's really aroma plus taste that give us flavor.

So some of these differences have to do with how many taste buds we have on our tongue or papillae as they're called.

And even like our saliva chemistry can amplify or alter flavor perception, you know, genetics, all these things come into play.

If one person likes something and another person doesn't like, again, it could be memory influencing.

It could be things like age or medication or illness.

There's so many things that go into taste.

But really, we have found that repeated exposure, social context, and positive influences or experiences can really...

help retrain our palate.

So if you know somebody who doesn't like something, you could work with them.

And we see this often in like, let's call it bitter foods or even think about the trend in super sour candy with kids.

25 years ago or 35 years ago, kids might have spit out super sour candy because it was too sour, but they got trained with these experiences and now they've learned to enjoy those foods.