Episode 01: Personal Flavor Vocabularies

How do our personal backgrounds affect how we taste beer and chocolate?

Craft beer and bean to bar chocolate can be beautifully complex, and when we taste and describe them, we tend to think the flavors and aromas we recognize are universal. In reality, every aroma or flavor we identify is something we learned at some point, and that personal vocabulary is based upon where we grew up, our cultural background, and a host of other influences.

In this episode, we talk with a chocolate educator and a beer expert about how these personal flavor vocabularies are developed, and how we can consciously grow them as adults. 

The beer discussed in this episode was Brouwerij Girardian Gueuze 1882 (Black Label).

The music for this episode was sampled from an instrumental version of the song “200 Miles”, written and performed by indie folk musician Anna ps from her 2016 album Umbrella. Anna p.s. conveys a sense of weariness throughout her simple yet resonant songs, but it’s a weariness that keeps a blanket of hope tucked up under its chin, even as the rain keeps falling outside the windows. You can find out more about Anna at her website. 

Guests:

Brian Reed is a Master Cicerone—one of only 19 in the world—and was featured in the 2018 documentary Brewmaster about his quest to pass the rigorous exam for that designation. According to his Twitter account, he is also a “Professional Beer Person, Fire Hall Yinzer and former carny,” who likes cooking, brewing & horror movies.

London Coe is the founder of Learn, Love, Eat, a conference bringing together experts in different food and drink fields to discuss a deeper experience of flavor. She is also the owner of Peace on Fifth, a shop in Dayton, Ohio, selling slavery-free products. She sells bean to bar chocolate and leads immersive chocolate tasting classes.