What do flavors have to do with understanding herbs?
When we taste, whether it’s vegetables, fruits, herbs, dairy or meat, it tells us how that food or herb interacts with our body.
When trying to identify taste, you should place the herb/food in your mouth, keep it toward the front and thoroughly chew it and allow it to sit in your mouth for a bit.
Doing this with herbs gives us the primary taste(s).
Most herbs have one primary taste, but some herbs have multiple tastes, such as the schisandra berry, which has 5 flavors; if you haven’t tried it yet, go do it now!
When trying to learn to identify taste, you should try to start out with foods/herbs that you’re familiar with, so you can begin to truly understand what flavors are. Sometimes people mix up the sour taste (meat of the lemon) with bitter (lemon peel) or are unable to taste a mildly sweet taste because it’s not as in-your-face as our modern day sweeteners.
After determining the primary taste, swallow and try to become aware of the aftertaste or the “mouth-feel” you get; this is known as the secondary taste.
I’ll be talking more about the taste of herbs in our free webinar on December 10 at 10 am PDT. You can join us by enrolling in the free course!
