developing a palate

I have so much to write about. This has been by far one of the most amazing weekends of my life. But...I want to relish this moment a bit more before dissecting it with words. So, for now, I will share the adventures of my palate.

I am not sure whether my current situation is due to having more time for myself, living on the East Coast, or that I am officially getting older. Either way, I am being forced to expand my palate. This is an odd concept to me. I have learned to love the finest foods and wines and developed a great sense of taste. As a child, my mother and I would play a game every time we went to a restaurant. After one bite, we had to name every ingredient the chef used. I remember doing this as far back as the age of 6 and loved it. Of course, with the time, the catalog of known spices, herbs, and flavors continued to expand and the game actually became harder. Yet, a sense of taste was developed and thus became the core of my knowledge of life. Only now I find myself completely lost. It turns out I know nothing about coffee, tea, and chocolate. Thus far these are items I did not have time to give any thought. The funny thing is these are the three best sellers at my job. So, I must learn them well and FAST.

Coffee has simply been a hot morning stimulate that I added hazelnut flavoring to and went on my way. That is if I even took the time to make it myself. Usually I wasted money and calories at Coffeebean to get me through the day. Don't get me wrong. I have had a great cup of coffee. My mother's cannot be beat. But it is something of which I have never understood the intricacies. Now, I depend on coffee to get me through the day. 5am is not my friend. And when I get up, I want something that tastes good. Thus, my first quest began. It turns out beans from Guatemala taste completely different from those from Mexico. Thanks to Kirstin and her wonderful Starbucks job, I am able to further my quest and soon become a full-fledged coffee ordering Bostonian.

Apparently chocolate is just as diverse. Did you know there are beans grown in many countries worldwide? And each one has a different flavor? Do you know what percentage constitutes a dark versus milk chocolate? And this said percentage is up to debate amongst chocolate connoisseurs. I had and still have no idea. I truly think we sell over 100 different types of chocolate in the store and each is completely foreign to me. Again, I have had great chocolate from Switzerland, Peru, and France. But the chocolate world goes so much deeper than that. There are at least 5 different dark chocolate bars with chilies in the store and probably 20 with some sort of orange. Each has a different texture, density, flavor, and breakdown. I need to know these differences and discover a good way to describe it to someone as clueless as I currently am.

Lastly we come to tea. To me, tea is just lightly flavored water. I have never understood how people could throw parties centering around flavored water (no offense friend). I have tried many times to make a good cup of tea...usually when I am coming down with a cold. However, every time, I am so disappointed. The leaves themselves smell amazing. Such great combinations of flavors and aromatics. But add a little water and you just get water..with a slight hint of that great smell. I don't get it. Why does tea have to be such a tease?!

I know to some of you reading this, my confusion may seem silly. How could I not know about chocolate, coffee, and tea? These are the staples in so many lives. I, however, could not have been bothered. I was too busy chasing the savory side of life. I ate at fine restaurants and dissected some of the best dishes in Los Angeles. I challenged my palate with different types of wines- sparkling, reds, whites and roses. There was no time to spend on hot liquids that usually tasted like crap or chocolate that usually tasted like wax. I was too busy working and planning everyone else's extravagant lives.

So now, like so many other aspects of my life, I need to figure out what it is that I like. I must return to the basics and develop a foundation so that I may one day have an extravagant life of my own.