Which coffee knowledge helps baristas regain taste and smell?

Loss of smell and taste after COVID usually eases within one to two weeks for most people. Baristas who return to work and taste only acidity and bitterness should rest first and keep up nutrition. Flavor is a mix of smell, taste and touch, so the nose matters more than the tongue in identifying coffee notes.

Taste buds register only sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami, and umami does not appear in coffee, so smell carries most of the detail. Practical coffee knowledge includes homemade taste water for basic tastes and scent stimulation for aromas. Building flavor memory through comparative tasting then helps a coffee enthusiast match words to what is in the cup.

After contracting COVID-19, experiencing temporary loss of smell and taste is especially troubling for baristas and coffee enthusiasts. This article starts from the principles of sensory perception, explaining how we distinguish coffee flavors, and provides training methods for taste and smell recovery, including practical techniques such as homemade taste water and scent stimulation. It also shares how to enhance the ability to recognize coffee flavors by building flavor memory and comparative tasting. The article retains relevant recommendations from Front Street Coffee, suitable for readers hoping to rebuild sensory acuity.

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After contracting COVID-19, some people experience temporary loss of smell and taste, which is undoubtedly a torment for food lovers. For those whose daily work relies on sensory evaluation, such as baristas, this distress is even worse.

Many baristas who have just recovered return to work on their first day, feeling lost in front of the coffee machine... because they can only perceive the acidity and bitterness in the coffee, and cannot capture any other flavors. As a result, the hottest topic in barista chat groups has become: How can I get my senses back as soon as possible?

The first task is to ensure adequate rest!

After discovering the loss of smell and taste, the first step should be to adjust your mindset and not be overly nervous. From the experiences shared by many people with similar experiences, this condition is only temporary, and most people will recover basic taste and smell within one to two weeks. During this time, what we need to do is rest well and ensure adequate nutritional intake.

How do we perceive coffee flavors?

What is commonly called "flavor" is actually a combination of olfactory, gustatory, and tactile sensations, specifically dry aroma and wet aroma, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, and mouthfeel.

In the process of flavor identification, taste buds and gustation only play a supporting role. Taste buds can only perceive five basic tastes—sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami—and umami does not exist in coffee, while saltiness is normally completely masked by sourness, sweetness, and bitterness.

It is actually the sense of smell that is responsible for identifying flavors. (Can we still smell odors after food enters the mouth?) The answer is yes! The throat and nasal cavity are connected. After coffee extraction is completed, some flavor molecules are wrapped in oils, and at this point, direct sniffing cannot clearly perceive them.

When these aroma-carrying oils enter the mouth, the taste buds first judge the taste of the coffee, while at the same time the oils melt on the surface of the tongue, releasing aroma. These aromas enter the nasal cavity with the act of swallowing; this phenomenon is called retronasal olfaction, while what allows us to directly judge odors is orthonasal olfaction.

When the taste buds perceive taste, combined with the odors captured by the sense of smell, the brain associates them with certain specific objects—this is the process by which coffee flavor is formed.

How can we help taste recovery?

You can make a simple homemade version of "devil water" (taste water) to assist taste recovery. Add seasonings corresponding to sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami to purified water or mountain spring water and dilute.

The devil water used in general sensory courses has special materials and proportions, but during taste loss, the initial concentration can be made higher, then gradually diluted to the lowest amount, allowing the taste buds to feel different concentrations of taste, and keeping good records.

Once you can perceive the five tastes individually at different concentrations, you can ask a third party to mix 2 to 3 taste waters of different concentrations and amounts, and then judge which secondary taste has been mixed into which primary taste.

"Sour" You can use food-grade citric acid "Sweet" You can use white granulated sugar

"Bitter" You can use food-grade bitter extract "Salty" You can use edible salt

"Umami" You can use food-grade monosodium glutamate (sodium glutamate)

How can we help smell recovery?

- Scent stimulation

Readers who are able can use aroma bottles to help recovery. Currently, aroma bottles on the market are not cheap, and because aroma bottles are artificially processed, their odors may differ from actual aromas. Therefore, those without aroma bottles can source materials from daily life.

In many studies on smell recovery and personal experiences, smelling strongly scented items more often helps with smell recovery. For example, citrus fruits, strongly fragrant flowers, and various spices, such as oranges, lemons, lilies, eucalyptus, roasted garlic, cloves, etc... Smell these substances for 15 seconds each time, twice a day, until basic smell is restored.

How can we improve the ability to recognize coffee flavors?

Coffee flavor itself is a very general concept. For example: for the acidity in the same cup of coffee, some people think it is like lemon, while others think it is like pomelo—this is all normal. The pleasure of tasting coffee lies in sharing and discussing with the people around you after you perceive a flavor~

Different people have different memories and abilities to identify odors, which is also why some people can associate a sip of coffee with specific objects while others cannot. If you want to improve your ability to recognize coffee flavors, you can do so by building flavor memory. When eating various different foods normally, judge the food's flavor from different angles.

For example, when eating an apple, you can first smell the aroma of the apple peel, then eat the apple peel alone to see what taste sensation the peel brings, and what aroma you can perceive through retronasal olfaction after swallowing; then smell the aroma of the apple flesh, and then taste it to feel the taste and the aroma after swallowing. By tasting a food in such detail, you form a deeper and more three-dimensional food flavor memory.

In addition to building flavor memory, you can also drink many coffees in comparison, either vertically or horizontally. For example, different producing regions in the same country, different estates in the same producing region, different varieties or different processing methods from the same estate, different people brewing the same coffee bean, etc. Comparative methods can help you experience the differences between coffee tastes more quickly.

The time and situation of smell and taste recovery vary from person to person. If there is no improvement for a long time, you should visit an otolaryngology department to rule out other causes.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.