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Interview with Functional Fragrance Expert John Lenhart

This post deals with the fascinating world of functional fragrance: the commercial art of adding aromas to household products. Since so much money is riding on this, it tends to be highly secretive, and it’s very difficult to get those involved to really tell stories about the tricks and techniques that make these products and deal with our perceptually messy selves. John has moved on to other things, so was happy to share some insights with me.

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G. Lacambre’s Strange Belgian Beers in 1851

Obviously a work this large has a lot in it, so here I’m dealing with a small portion of the book where he describes the beer styles of the day. Early on in the book Lacambre asserts that at that time, just about all (75 percent) beers from Belgium and Holland were wheat (or other adjunct) based beers, even “the ones we call barley beers.” This was prior to the arrival of lagers in Belgium.

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Food and Drink: What Is Really Known About Food and Drink Interactions?

I was involved for a couple of years with a group that was trying to put some logic and science into the often fuzzy thinking around beer and food pairing. I think we made some progress, but one of the things we knew we needed was a literature search. This meant combing through a ton of scientific papers to look for proven interactions, which was not an easy task, since they tended to be buried in research about particular receptors and other biological systems.

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Don’t Go to Valle d’Aosta

If you’re the kind of traveler who loves to catch a selfie at the iconic sights everyone knows about—the Leaning Tower, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s David—there’s precious little in Valle d’Aosta for you. 

If, on the other hand, you like diving into uncharted territory to discover your own iconic wonders, this might be your place.

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Hidden Taste Systems

Of our chemical senses, taste is the one most of is is probably the most obvious. A sweet, salty, sour or bitter taste on our tongue is quick and unambiguous, although umami and others can be more nuanced. The last thing we would expect is a parallel taste system in our bodies operating entirely behind the scenes.

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Beer & Cheese: A Perfect Partnership

Specialty cheese-makers are starting to realize beer is a natural companion and great selling tool. And as I myself have found out, it’s a small and comfortable step from beer lover to beer and cheese aficionado. A few are starting to pick up on this. Rogue happens to be the name of both a creamery and a brewery, although they do not share ownership. But the two have been working a lot together to spread the message of great beer and cheese.

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The Experts: What Do They Know?

In terms of smell, humans are often denigrated as being much poorer than bears or dogs. Compared to mice, it’s true we have only a third as many working receptor types, but we have way more copies. It’s a fair bargain, because their extra receptors involuntarily control their behavior, while our cognitive brain does these tasks with far more flexibility—and free will. Each creature has its own lifestyle, and its sensory systems are adapted perfectly to it.

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What’s Going On in the Olfactory Bulb?

Part One: Signal Processing

Unlike manufactured systems, our senses can’t rely on highly accurate and linear sensors to convert external stimuli into usable signals. Biological systems are inherently variable, noisy and limited in range, yet we need clear and accurate information to guide our behavior. How do we manage to do this?

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Why Brew Beer?

The marketing geniuses at the world’s industrial breweries have no clue what kind of beer you like. Even if they did, the best they could do would be to dump it into a pot with a hundred thousand other preferences and brew an accountant-approved approximation of the resulting mélange. Which is exactly what they do. By brewing it yourself, you can have what you want, when you want it. You are the niche market supreme.

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