by How to Recreate the Sensation of Taste in Your Mind
The gustatory concentration exercise shares similarities in difficulty with the previous one. In this exercise, we are no longer restricted by the inhalation process associated with our daily olfactory experiences. However, that doesn’t mean it is any easier.
Let us remember that one of the purposes of sensory training is to isolate perceptions and reproduce them individually—without relying on multiple physical senses—at a mental level. We know that nearly all our senses contribute to the sensation of taste: the appearance of food, its texture (touch), and its smell. Cold temperatures can inhibit the taste centres, and anyone who has tried to eat in the dark is aware that the perception of taste becomes very blurred in such conditions. This illustrates the challenge of mentally experiencing the pure sensation of flavour without the simultaneous input from the other senses.
To begin practising, we will focus on foods and condiments that provide primary sensations: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Let’s taste one of these substances and then try to mentally replicate the feeling on our tongues once the taste has faded. After spending some time practising with these basic flavours, we can enhance our skills by exploring more complex flavours, such as spices or a variety of foods.
The map on the left can help you identify areas of the tongue that are sensitive to specific taste sensations. Umami is the taste experienced when consuming meat, certain vegetables, mushrooms, shellfish, and foods that are rich in glutamate, which are generally perceived as tasty and savoury.
Once you successfully maintain the sensation of flavour for five minutes, you have achieved the goal of the exercise.
This concludes the mental exercises for Step Two.
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