How to enjoy anything...well almost!

A few nights ago I was having beers with friends, when someone offered me an expensive well-aged Scotch to drink.

There was only one problem…I have never really drank it much, and don’t care too much for the taste of it either, and therefore missed out on a great opportunity to say I have tried it.

Truth be told, the more I come to think about it, years ago, I used to be the same with wine,  avocado, tuna, mushrooms, certain types of music and a lot of other things as well.

Until I acquired a taste for them.

This got me thinking about it and I realized, If I didn’t like those things before and now do, what is to stop me from acquiring tastes for other things that I don’t currently like? Hence my research into this began.

What is an acquired taste?

It sounds very “high society” (and I say that tongue in cheek) to say that X “requires an acquired taste” or “I have acquired a taste for X”, but really it’s not like that at all.

An acquired taste is purely the name given to something that is unpleasant upon immediate experience i.e. something that requires a deliberate effort.

There are two broad categories of taste: the first being Literal taste, which applies naturally to food and drink, and the second being aesthetic taste which relates to cultural patterns or choice of preference i.e. music, fashion, art and so forth.

Why acquire a taste for something you don’t particularly like?

I think that it is really important to experience the most you can in life and not be ignorant to anything new or different. Not liking something is not really an excuse that I will allow myself to use anymore, because there were actually lot of things that I now like doing that I didn’t when I first tried them years ago, or I held cognitive fears associated with them at the time that put me off of them.

Liking, tasting and trying exotic, new  things that are not well liked by the masses, has a sense of style about it and comes into an important part of the “lifestyle quart” from the definition of style. It aids in creating your aura, makes you an interesting person, and has other want to get to know you.

How do we acquire a taste?

After doing some research I have come up with a process that will aid in the acquiring of a taste for something (for the purpose of this post I will call it X).

1. Why do you want to acquire X, and look for the POSITIVES in doing it. I think it is just a good idea to know the reason behind why you are doing something, and not just because some bloke suggested in a blog post that it was a good idea to try J. Something simple such as fitting in with a certain crowd or social circle is more than a good enough reason to acquire a taste and have a new experience in your life. Try and come up with 3 positives outcomes that  will add to your life/lifestyle.
2. Find out some background on X. Most people don’t like doing certain things because of the fear of unknown, or they don’t know where to start. If you know the background of X and can appreciate differences between varied types of X (based on your prior knowledge), then you are bound to appreciate X itself. It doesn’t have to be a degree, just something like having a look at Wikipedia is enough and a lot more than most people do before learning something new.
3. Initial exposure. Pretty obvious. Start small, very small if you must.
4. Repeated exposure. Make an effort to try as much as you can and as often as you can. There are some beliefs on acquiring a taste out there that are based on “all or nothing” i.e. eat 20 olives each day for 3 days and you will like them. I have a contrary belief to this and think that it is far better to do a little over longer periods of time, so try it a little but try it more often.
5. Variety and experimentation.  A lot of X’s have different varieties, types etc. make sure you try the different types to get the one that suits you. i.e. wines, cheeses, olives all have many different types, find you best fit.  Make sure you experiment with, as this can play a major part in whether you will enjoy something:

• Surroundings
• Comfort levels
• Times of day
• Moods
• Social settings
• Present with friends etc.

For example: I love a beer when I am sitting on the couch, relaxing watching sport, or in the company of friends, but can’t say that I like it first thing in the morning, or directly after working out. If I only tried beer for the first time during these later situations, then chances are I am not going to enjoy beer.

Some extra tips

1. If your struggling to like something, try pretending or acting as if you already do and have the same responses and feelings that other lovers would. This will help your mind produce the desired taste.

2. Remember it will always take time. You won’t love wine tomorrow (if you do make sure you let us know in the comments below), but you will eventually.

Some things we might consider Acquiring a taste for

So just in case you can’t think of something that you would like to acquire a taste for below are some starting points:

• Spirits: whiskey, bourbon, tequila, cocktails, cognac etc.
• Beer – different varieties
• Health foods: avocados, mushrooms, eggplant etc.
• Olives
• Cheese
• Wine: white or red
• Music: Jazz, classical, rock, alternative, punk, blues and roots etc.
• Theater
• Art
• Fashions
• Foreign cultures
• Anything else that you don’t like and want to : only limited by your imagination.

For your reference/amusement the next two on my list are Olives and Scotch. I will be keeping notes, and report back here in another post to let you know how I go with it.

Take Action

1. If you feel as though you want to acquire a taste for something new, follow the 5 step process
2. Report back here of any success’s or learning’s that you have whilst trying

What do you think? Are there particular things that you would like to acquire a taste for? How will you (or do you) go about doing it?

Just follow the rules that experts do!

Did you know that most wine experts just follow a set of rules when they taste wine and write reviews? The truth is that most of the time they recycle the same “description” words and use them over and over again for similar varieties of wines!

Now…I am not putting them down. I actually think there is an inherent gift to being able to get so much details about the different flavors and aromas of wines.

I am getting there, but only recently have I learnt the right process when it comes to tasting, which is only the start of me being able to talk up a storm when I taste my next wine.

The Process

The process to follow whenever you taste wine whether it be in the comfort of your own home, at a winery, or even at a restaurant is:

The 5 S’s. Which are: See, Swirl, Smell, Sip, Savor.

See - Basically note the color of the wine. Put the glass on a angle, against a light back ground if possible. As a general rule, heavier wines will be deeper in color.

Swirl – I’m sure everyone has seen this done a myriad of times. If you are a beginner and find it really hard to swirl fluently – place the glass on the table, hold it at its stem and make small circles on the table. This is the cheats way to get nice swirl.

The swirl has two main purposes. 1. Allow the wine to breath, which opens up the smell and taste of the wine and 2. To see how viscous the wine is by the “legs” that will run back down the side of the glass.

Smell – pretty self explanatory. I won’t get into too much detail here, but this should be about enjoying the scent of the wine.

Sip – Finally, we get to drinking hey? It is a good idea to hold it in your mouth for a few seconds, to allow your taste buds to fully absorb the flavor. During this step you are basically trying to govern the texture, flavors and weight of the wine.

Savor – This step basically is to explain/note the aftertaste that you get of the wine.

If this process is new to you, depending on who your drinking the wine with, it is probably best to stick to very broad and generic terms when describing both the smell and taste of the wine.

Things such as: “fruity”, “sweet”, “dry”, “strong” (heavy), “smooth”, even things like “nice” or ” not very nice” still will give perception that you have done it before.

At the end of the day, If you don’t think the wine is nice and drinkable it does not matter what an expert has once said about the wine. So don’t be afraid to have confidence in your own palate.

If you feel like getting adventurous. There are actually some tools which can help you in the tasting description process.

A really handy tool when learning a lot of the descriptors of wine is the Aroma Wheel. This really simplifies the your description database.

Also, check out here for an extensive list of common descriptors and what they mean when they are used in wine circles and on the back of labels. Finally some sense to the descriptions on the back of bottles!

Take Action

Next time you have some wine, whether it is at home, at a friends place or in a restaurant, remember the 5 S’s and go through the process. Remember to take your time going through the process even if your friends don’t. They will be asking you questions in no time, which is never a bad thing. Taking time is the key, which will allow you to consciously taste the wine and remember it in the future.

What do you think? What processes do you use for tasting wine? Would you like me to go into wine (including what to buy for what meal etc) in future posts?