Palate Evolution: Exploring Taste Across a Lifetime
As we age so does our palate
It’s good to be back writing after an extended weekend of sorts. During the holiday there were so many fantastic flavors that crossed my palate that it got me thinking about taste and how our palates change over time as we age.
I have always been fascinated by taste. When we are young our tastebuds are fresh and pure, ready to be blown away by a plethora of sweet, sour, salty, and savory flavors.
The concept of acquired taste was presented to me at an early age by my mom. She would have me try certain foods or beverages to see if I liked them, and when I didn’t she would tell me that the flavor I had just sampled is an acquired taste.
What does that mean, acquired taste? Does it mean your tastebuds have become more refined or less? Are we honing in on certain flavors or is your palate missing just enough of those displeasing flavors that it may round off the harsh edges of a particularly pungent food?
Bleu cheese was the first time I encountered a food so pungent that I couldn’t even swallow it. I was at a new grocery store that had just been built in the town I grew up in. They were giving away pizza slices as samples.
Pizza, hell yeah, oh wait, hell no! I took a bite of that slice and BAM, the pungent flavor and aroma of hot stinky bleu cheese hit me square in the mouth with a sour feet-like flavor punch that left its impression on me till this day. That was one of those acquired tastes.
I was working as a cook in a retirement setting when I was walking around the dining room serving coffee. I stopped to pour a coffee for a double amputee when he firmly asked, “What temperature is that coffee?” A little confused I said well, it’s really hot.
Looking at me doubtfully he said, how hot, do you have a thermometer? Yes, I do as a matter of fact, right here in my pocket. I pulled the thermometer out of the arm pocket of my chef’s coat and plunged it into a clean cup of coffee.
It reads 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I said see, that’s really hot. NOPE, not hot enough! Alright, how hot do you want it to be?
He then said this. Well, if boiling is 212 degrees, then I want my coffee to be at least 200! Wow, 200 I don’t think I can legally serve coffee that hot, it seems dangerous. The man said, if it’s not at least 200 degrees then I will consider it to be cold!
I took his cup of coffee, his really hot cup of coffee back to the kitchen and brought it out a minute later. I told him I had stuck it in the microwave, I didn’t, but his mind and his palate both were satisfied.
Once we hit middle age our tastebuds begin to regenerate at a slower pace affecting the overall flavor experience of our food. Salty and sweet are usually the first kind of foods that we have difficulty tasting as we age.
I spent over six years in my mid-twenties and early thirties cooking for senior citizens and I will tell you that most of the food that was prepared in that kitchen was what I would consider to be “overseasoned” but for the clientele for which I was cooking, it was just right.
In health class, as a younger teenager, we talked about acquiring a taste for more adult flavors. We mainly discussed the taste of alcohol and tobacco, although it’s not like the teacher was recommending that we go out and try those things, although some of us did anyway, but they do exist and people do consume them.
I had tasted a few sips of beer at a young age and I liked it quite a bit, but as I found out later in life, most kids didn’t. Tobacco was another story, I don’t think that anybody liked the taste of tobacco the first time, especially cigarettes but that didn’t stop me from smoking for a couple of decades.
Liver, bleu cheese, coffee, pickled herring, and kimchi, are all things that I have acquired a taste for during my time here on earth. Even though some of these flavors may be appalling to others, I find them delicious or at least appropriate to the flavor context in which I am operating.
As a toddler, my son would eat pretty much anything that I cooked, now at age 9, not so much, but his palate is just beginning to develop. Throughout his life, his preferences will change drastically while still holding on to some of the flavors of childhood.
There are however some foods that I don’t think I will ever acquire a taste for, durian being at the top of the list. Sorry durian, you’re just not my thing. I am sure some fermented shark meat would probably be on the list as well but I will never know.
What are some acquired tastes that you have developed throughout your lifetime?
I definitely acquired a deep interest in all things bitter around age 21. I started enjoying darker beers, coffee with no sugar in it, and red wine. Oh yeah - bourbon, too.
I can only assume it was all at once because of the bitter combos in all of them, but on the other hand, all four of those are drugs with not altogether unpleasant side effects, so who knows.
I grew up on a small farm. Every time we butchered a steer, my mom always cooked the liver. I just did not like it. She had mercy on me and never made me eat it.Through the years, every once in a while I would try it again. Somewhere in time my taste changed. I now find liver to be delicious.