Another Birthday

Do you want to learn a little about yourself?  Here is a short, painless test (no right or wrong) that will give you a little bit of insight into how your hard drive works. 

https://www.arealme.com/left-right-brain/en/

I scored 86% left, 14% right. I knew that I'd come out more heavily weighted toward my left, but I was slightly surprised that the results were that dramatic. It wasn't a very scientific test but it was fun, took almost no time, and it helps me connect something that I recently heard about the brain with a post that is about tasting whiskey. 

I recently turned 66 and my daughter, knowing how I love to try new things, gave me eight miniatures of Irish Whiskey, some Scotch and one New Zealand Whisky. In a previous post I told you about Laphroaig.**  That remains my favourite, for many reasons, but having eight new ones to try is a great way to celebrate having lived for almost 2/3 of a century. 

(Here's the laphroaig post if you're interested.) **http://fostersoe.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/the-fusion-of-fiction-and-fact-this.html

Even before I opened the first bottle, the Thomson from New Zealand, I went to You tube in search of information about tasting whiskeys. We've all seen the wine or whiskey snobs on TV, gushing about 'nose' and 'notes' and 'finishes'. They're hard to take. But, I'm aware that as you taste a whisky that is twelve years old and has been stored in a Caribbean rum barrel for the last four, it may very well have picked up flavors that can be described. I wanted to know how to taste these very impressive distillations without becoming a bad joke. And I found an answer. I went to The Whisk[e]y Vault. I'll give you a link. 

I have watched these guys on the W.V. do several videos and have learned a little already. I especially enjoyed the video they did on Laphroaig Quarter Cask. 

One of the things I learned from them is something I had probably learned back in psych 101 at NMU, but had forgotten. That is, that taste and smell sensations are processed in the right side of the brain. 

Now, let's jump back to the brain test I put at the beginning of this post. The left side of the brain performs tasks that have to do with logic, such as in science and math. The right side performs tasks which have to do with creativity and the arts. Hmmm. That is interesting. 

Taste, and especially smell make very strong connections within our brains. Smells can  carry us back to our childhood for example if what we have just smelled reminds us of grandma's cookies of 55 years ago. Therefore, the tastes encountered in a small-batch Irish Whiskey might very well 'remind' us of all sorts of other tastes that our right brain has stored away in it. Recognising that fact and trying to sort out the flavors that a particular whiskey brings to mind becomes logical when you think of it that way. 

I'm happy with the way my brain works, but I wonder if I would make a better whiskey taster if I was more right-brained? I've been sipping a couple of the whiskeys already but I have a hard time making any connections with any flavors. I sure haven't been able to identify notes of black pepper, apricots or wood in anything I've tasted. (these three seem to be common tastes the wine-tasters often throw around) 

I did have such an experience once though. Jeanne had peeled and laid out pieces of a very ripe mango. I like mangoes and grabbed a piece. As I bit it, I was instantly reminded of turpentine. I could even visualise the quart-sized can that it came in. When my dad painted our house in about 1963, I had helped with those parts I could reach and we cleaned our brushes in turpentine. The weird thing was though, that this was one of the best mangoes I had ever eaten and it reminded me of turpentine, in a good way. That sounds weird, but I now hope, with every new mango I eat, to repeat that experience. 

So, if I can make such an odd connection and enjoy doing it, I'm certainly ready to believe that others can taste 'plum', 'licorice' or 'peat' in their wine or whiskey. And maybe I can learn something from watching the whiskey sommalier at The Whisk[e]y Vault. 

Give them a try. If you don't like them, turn it off. And I'm curious. If you're a person who scores high on your right-brain, do some sort of tasting and let me know what you find. Do multiple flavors leap to mind as you taste?   

I don't know if you'll make it all the way to the end of this video when the bearded guy makes a toast so I'll close my post with his toast:

"May those who love us, love us, and those who hate us, may God turn their hearts, and if He cannot turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles, so that we may know them by their limping."   -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cCZrlgNpak