Basic principles of sensory analysis

Pierre à fusil, sol forestier, vétiver... Adjectives to get lost in. Wine lovers who work with specialists in the field of taste could quickly get lost in a jungle of learned terms. But isn't tasting simply a matter of emotions?

Let's go back to the basics. Human beings have 5 senses, which enable them to analyse the world around them and to evolve within it. Thanks to our visual representation of the world, we can navigate our environment (more or less) without accident. We sense dangers, our hearing is activated and signals are sent when we taste food. We are all equipped with these signal receivers and, de facto, we are all capable of conducting a tasting session independently. There's just one rule: there is no right or wrong!

Opt for spontaneous tasting!

In our opinion, tasting in any area of taste (wine, gastronomy, cigars, etc.) is mainly a matter of common sense, and of our own ability to connect our tastes to our emotions.

The more often this exercise is done, the quicker it will lead to a library of the senses or a "library of the senses". palace of flavours "as Madame Blue Smoke likes to call it.

We live in our own bodies, we have our own emotions, memories, Proust's madeleines. So everyone has their own Palace, of which you alone are king!

It's this simple method that we propose to tame by trusting ourselves completely: using our 5 senses to set off on a personal discovery of a product.

The visual

Before we act, we observe an object, analyse it and project certain properties onto it based on the experiences we have already had. This applies, among other things, to what we eat, drink and smoke! How brown is the wrapper on this cigar? Is it oily or dry? Are there any rough edges?

Be careful to avoid the "dark cherry is sweet cherry" trap. Our brains tend to associate dark colours with intense tastes. This is easy to see in wine, where a dark colour is associated with a tannic wine. In the world of cigars, a dark wrapper will not necessarily be synonymous with strength, just as a light wrapper could easily impart very peppery, warm notes.

The same goes for the ring, to which the marketing managers will pay particular attention in order to mislead you or condition your tasting. For example, you can easily associate a pink ring with a floral or feminine side.

The aim of this first stage is to trust your eyes! And without prejudice. How would you describe the ring? What colour is the cape? What does this colour evoke in you?

Taste

Our perception of taste and our sense of sensibility changes considerably from one person to another, making it highly individual.

Apart from the "basic" identifiable tastes (salty, sweet, etc), the more complex tastes are difficult to discern objectively because they are linked to our own sensitivities.

The same applies to chords. Some pairings will 'stifle' tastes. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that, once again, tastes are highly personal.

In a cigar and drink or cigar and food pairing, we should therefore ask ourselves how the properties of the cigar complement, reinforce or neutralise the food/drink. The right pairing is achieved when the cigar's effect on the palate is persistent and 'magnifies' the pairing, and when the two products are in balance.

The sense of smell

According to Choi and Han (2015), the sense of smell is the oldest of all the senses. It may have appeared 3500 million years ago, as even single-celled organisms have receptors to detect small molecules in the environment (Sell 2014). The sense of smell provides us with up to 80% of information when we taste a food (Murphy et al. 1977).

For a molecule to be perceived as an odour, it must be volatile. Aromatic substances can enter the nose in two ways (fig. 4.1): orthonasally (directly into the nose from the outside) and retronasally (via the palate). For example, the smell of hot coffee in the morning can be smelled from the bathroom, and the aromas are amplified when the coffee is brought to the mouth. Another feature of the sense of smell is that it is directly linked to learning, memories and emotions (Choi and Han 2015).

The sense of smell is a direct route to your emotions, and your most intimate emotions. This is the principle behind Proust's madeleine: a phenomenon in which a smell, taste, sound or sensation involuntarily brings back a buried memory, often linked to childhood. The concept comes from Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", where the narrator tastes a madeleine dipped in tea, triggering a cascade of forgotten memories of his childhood in Combray. This moment illustrates involuntary memory, which arises without conscious effort, in contrast to voluntary memory, where we actively try to remember something.

Let your emotions speak for themselves during a tasting: the smell of acacia is, for me, very recognisable. When I was a child, my father used to make homemade acacia fritters, and that smell of freshly picked white flowers is inseparable from that memory, and that memory is a direct gateway to my emotions and the olfactory recognition of acacia.

So, when you're tasting a wine, don't hesitate to immerse yourself in your memories and associate smells with particular moments in time. The more consciously you do this, the easier it will be to "find" your way around your sense of smell.

Touch

When tasting a cigar, touch is an essential part of the experience. This involves touching the cigar with your fingers and the wrapper (rough, smooth, ribbed, etc.). As the cigar is tasted, it becomes softer, and you will notice this by pressing it lightly under your fingers, using your touch.

Touch will also come from your palate and the cigar's smoke: its density in the mouth. The last important point is the activation of your "thermoreceptors": the sensation of heat on your fingers and palate: does the cigar heat up? How do your fingers feel?

It is therefore an essential sense that will play an integral part in your tasting experience.

Hearing

The final touch: your feelings!

The most important aspect of your tasting is the one that, paradoxically, is most often forgotten or overlooked because it is so personal. It belongs to you, just like the tasting you've just done. It is, quite simply, of your enjoyment of this cigar!

Sources

Sensory analysis of foodstuffs, Agroscope https://www.agroscope.admin.ch/agroscope/fr/home/themes/denrees-alimentaires/analyse-sensorielle.html