[Chef_Bob]

I was asked a queston yesturday regarding perfect palate. The theory is simular to perfect pitch in music, that some people have a hightened palate that can taste moe flvours etc. than the average person.

Has any one every heard of this? Know where I can find more info?

[sancyr]

Try this article on "supertasters" - people that have more taste bud formations on their tongues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbo...ertaster.shtml

Also, there are a trained elite of sensory people that do sensory testing for everything from jelly beans to coffee to carpet. This link is to the company recently quoted in the book "Blink: The power of thinking without thinking." These trained folks can not only taste the difference between Pepsi and Coke, but can break the differences down to 40+ points of difference and describe them exactly.

http://www.sensoryspectrum.com/

One, yes, there are people that are born with more taste buds and can pick up on flavors that some people can't.

Two, this discriminating skill can also be learned through rigorous training. I believe the training program (which has an apprrentice-master structure for the comapny listed above) has a minimum two year course.

Three, perfect pitch is something that can be easily measured because sounds can be recreated exactly, then a person can be tested to see how close their perception is that standard.

Is there a standard to tasting flavors? Isn't that a little more subjective?

Hmm...

Sara

[redace1960]

i believe there is something like a standard; in the book fast food nation
the author mentions a place back east that manufactures flavorings.
i think it was in new jersey? anyway he goes on about how scientific they
have become in precicely analyzing elements of flavor. does anyone know
the name of the outfit i'm talking about?
obviously the sense of taste and it's accuracy are determined in large part
by the functioning of the sense of smell. i just came out of my second major
sinus surgery and you want to talk about disorienting. does having a super
developed sense of one mean both are supersensitive, i wonder??