For wine experts, being able to pick up aromas and flavors is very important. For this reason, French wine experts would like priority vaccination. Cees van Casteren, Master of Wine and chairman of the United Vinologists, also knows how important this is. “I am extremely careful, because I am largely out of work when I get corona,” he tells EditieNL.
Trained wine tasting
The sense of smell is indispensable for vinologists. “A lot of ordinary people do taste something in the wine, but a vinologist is trained to put into words what you eat and what you taste.” And so becoming infected with the coronavirus could make doing their job very difficult.
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Vinologists translate smell and taste into words. “Fragrance may be only half a milliliter or less of the wine, but that determines its character. Whether you like a wine or not.” To be able to pick this up you have to be trained. “It is very important, because it is a difference between a good wine and a less good wine that you then pick up.”
Odor loss
But what can you do if you do lose your sense of smell and smell? Culinary critic Joke Boon has been unable to smell since she was four. In her work she focuses on being able to enjoy food, even when you can no longer smell. In 2009 she wrote the book ‘The mystery of smell’ about this. “I tried everything to get my smell back, but it was irreversible for me,” she tells EditieNL.
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“When I was young, there were no such ways as odor training. But such training can help you regain your sense of smell.” These workouts are most effective when you get there early. “So people who have just lost their sense of smell, and up to a year after that, have a chance to regain the smell.”
Learn to smell again
Joke immersed herself in what is involved in smelling and set out to collect a lot of tips for her book ‘First aid for loss of smell’, which came out last Thursday. “I give tips on how to regain your sense of smell.”
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One of those ways is through training. “Then you get a special set of scents, and you have to smell one twice a day while looking at an image of that scent. This is how your brain is going to reinterpret the scent. You have to keep that up for a few months. And if there are still some. something of the sense of smell is intact, it can recover. “
Cooking without smell
In addition, Joke gives tips for all kinds of ways to cook for someone who no longer has a smell. “Taste is 80 percent determined by smell. But by using certain structure, temperature and color, you can perceive food with other senses.”
Using certain herbs can make you feel food. “That happens with the fifth cranial nerve. Like wasabi: you can feel that in the bottom of your nose. And you can also feel mint. You get a sensation.” And if you can no longer smell, you can often still taste with your tongue. “Like sour, you can taste it with your tongue.”
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According to Joke, it is also very important to eat with attention. “So don’t look at your phone, and the entourage is important. Like drinking water from a glass. Tasting is much more than just taste.” But smell is not only very important with food. Not being able to smell can also be dangerous. “Place a gas detector, for example, because you can no longer smell danger. And also for hygiene: a lot of people no longer smell that either.”
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