Beth Kimmerle

taste sensitivity changes with age, right?

Or illnesses or medications and that can dull or distort flavor perception.

If somebody put a traditional can of soda in front of me that had either cane sugar or corn syrup in it and I wasn't in tasting mode and it was a choice, I'd prefer water.

I think that has to do with social contracts.

We learned more about sugary drinks.

But I also, because I've worked for companies like Starbucks along the way, and I've learned to drink unsweetened coffee because of coffee cuppings.

And really, that was that exposure thing.

Learning to enjoy foods that we maybe initially disliked.

Oh, 100%.

I see... Because I work with...

professional tasters, I hear all the time memories that drive preferences, which I find really interesting.

People cannot divorce themselves from things like, this tastes just like the bread I grew up with, or my grandmother used to make something that was just like this, or I had a medication.

Memories are such a force.

you know, companies try to translate, you know, those, let's call them collective memories into terms like, just like homemade or just like grandma used to bake.

I find that interesting because with those memories sometimes comes very emotional reactions, joy, you know, fear around medication.

Oh my gosh, I had this...

Cherry flavor tastes like this Luden's cough drop that I had when I had scarlet fever.

I mean, on and on and on.

And when you're talking about under the radar, it's so embedded in us that sometimes we don't even know they're there until we taste that thing again.

And it's like walking into a portal, or I call it a time machine, right?