2309 Smaste

Our sense of smell is intricately linked to our sense of taste. There are after all only 5 types of tastes that our tastebuds can detect; salt, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. Umami as in, "Oooh Mommy, that tastes savory."

The rest of what we call flavor originates in our nose. And just about every scientist knows that means the olfactory bulbs in our nose. They are capable of detecting a trillion variations in scent.

Impressive as that is, dogs have even more. By comparison their noses can smell in Super-HD Blue-Ray 3-D and our noses are like regular VHS.

Well recently a company has come up with a way to exploit that tendency for the mind to confuse smell and tastes. Their product is called the Aromafork. Each fork comes with 21 small jars of aromatics and a medicine dropper. 

There's a small depression in the fork's handle that has a little bit of absorbent blotting paper. One puts the oils on the paper and voila, any scent you want can be added to your meal as you eat. Because now your schnoz will trick your mouth into a slip of the tongue.

Which means you can have an orange and vanilla-flavored bowl of oatmeal without the work of grinding vanilla or peeling and sectioning an orange. Or the expense of buying them. Likewise any number of flavor variations on a grilled steak. Garlic and onion. Pepper and tomato. Or, as the article I read on the device put it, maybe you're crazy enough to try a smoked cheesecake or a bubblegum-flavored pork chop. 

I'd like my basic grilled cheese to taste like it had broiled bacon and fresh avocado in it. Or heck, why not live a little? I've always wanted to try a salmon milkshake.

America, ya gotta love it.