| > Probably most wine snobs can't either, and probably most coffee snobs couldn't really tell the difference in a blind test. I think you are concluding too much for the data points you have (of your personal experience). I have a similar palate (lack thereof) like yours, but even my family members can tell when I've (say) used "too much" garlic in a recipe--when I can't even tell that the garlic is even there in the final product. (I only use it because the recipe says to.) Using a (e.g.) different marinade for chicken does not change my perception of it much when I chow down, but it does for others eating it. I once heard the explanation that the 'flavour' of a food is made of the taste (tongue), aroma (smell), and even texture of a food. Adam Ragusa made a video on the smell part recently: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-E-7MMNyE I suspect that I (and you given your descriptions) may have some kind of lowered sense of smell when comes to intaking foods and beverages, and so do not perceive the "tastes" as much as some other people. For example I cannot tell the difference in a lager, stout, etc, types of beer (they're all 'yeast water' to me), but I know people who love beer so much that if you put down a random one in from of them they could ID the style and often the maker and make. The flavours that do not exist in your experience may in fact do so for folks who have senses that are more sensitive than yours. Epicurious has a series of videos where experts do a blind taste test on "Cheap vs Expensive" products: * https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz3-p2q6vFYUpr-f2wOSQ... There certainly are folks that pre-judge things by simply knowing which is which beforehand, but to say that 'there are no differences' is swinging the pendulum the other way too much as well IMHO. Find a few coffee gear testing reviews where they use the same beans, using the same grinder, and yet different brewers cause slightly different results as perceive by the testers. America's Test Kitchen is a good source, as they often have a dozen-plus folks do blind tests to find the most-liked ("best") product. |