Incense type "flavor"
How are you doing?
We often get questions from customers about how to choose incense.
So why not choose incense based on its flavor type?
Below is a summary of what I learned this time and what I have shared in the texts I have used in my "Incense Creation Workshop" which has been held since 2015.
Some of you may be wondering, "What does incense taste like?" Apparently there is incense that you can eat, but here, in order to objectively identify the information and characteristics of the scent of fragrant wood , it is expressed by likening it to the familiar sense of taste and the accompanying smell. This was during the Muromachi period 700 years ago.
The tastes that can be distinguished are called the five tastes (of incense), and are a combination of five types: sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and salty . Each fragrance has multiple taste characteristics and is not monotonous.
It is also known that the sense of taste and smell influence each other, intensifying flavors. For example, if you drink flavored water by pinching your nose to block out the smell, you may find that you can't taste anything at all.
I wonder if people in the past knew this.
Below is a quote from Hayashi Ryushodo , a long-established Kyoto company , which I would like to share because it provides a very clear description of the taste you get when you smell (hear) the aroma.
| Five tastes | reading | meaning | Specific image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet | intuition | Sweet | The sweetness of honey |
| acid | Mr. Miss. | Sour | The sourness of pickled plums, etc. |
| Spicy | core | Spicy | The spiciness of spices such as pepper and chili |
| Salt | intuition | Salty | The smell of the sea when kelp or other seaweed is cooked on fire |
| bitterness | Ku | Bitter | The bitterness of citrus peels when burned |
By the way, the salty smell reminds me of the smell of a BBQ at the beach.
Hayashi Ryushodo is famous for its plum incense, which uses plums from Nijo Castle, a former imperial villa that is a World Heritage Site . When I visited in the fall of 2019, I was given a fresh batch of plum incense from the 6th generation.
Returning to the main topic, the five aroma tastes mentioned above are different from the five basic tastes of general taste: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.
Have a Scentful Day!
