Sense of Taste & Smell in Relation to Vaping

[Cynder]

Hey guys,

I recently went through a phase of the taste bud "doldrums" so to speak, however it was only affecting a couple different of my favorite flavors. I just could not taste them at all. One of them being cappucino and the other raspberry. I have a couple of favorite juices that I use with these flavors. One day I just could not taste them anymore.

I wasn't vaping them exclusively for a huge length of time, as I already knew that upon doing so I would lose the flavor of juices if I did so. I kept trying day after day but it was literally like vaping air. I was disgruntled. So I went on a bit of a search online. I found a webpage that though was written for wine, did give a lot of detail into our sense of taste and smell. I thought it was pretty good as it explains a bit and how taste is subjective and why that is.

Rochester Area Home Winemakers :: Our Sense of Taste

I love me some spicy food. I am fairly addicted to it in a sense. Since I found that hot peppers do have the potential of causing issues with taste buds I took it upon myself to do a little experiment. No spicy food for at least 10 days.

I'm about at that mark now, and I can taste the flavors that had been eluding me again. I drink a lot of water normally throughout the day so that is good advice, but that wasn't working for my buds. I couldn't even taste coffee while drinking it. Yes it's a little weird that it only affected a few flavors but it's food for thought anyway.

 

[John D in CT]

Interesting, thanks for that article.

Here's one fun fact they didn't mention; you can only taste while you're exhaling. I was very disappointed in my powers of observation when I only realized that a few years ago, after it was told to me.

Don't believe it? Try it right now

 

[Sweeney Todd]

I'm glad to see this topic being discussed. I think hobby vapers would benefit from taking a quickie wine-tasting course (or just reading up on it). I remember watching some of James May's wine shows on BBC America, and a few things I picked up to describe tastes have come in handy when talking about juices.

I definitely think of vaping as more smell than taste. I group just about everything except sweet/sour into smell. My wife, in contrast, thinks of most flavors as tastes distincly separate from their smells. I guess it's just the differences in how our brains are wired, but I find it fascinating.

 

[Cynder]

thanks, and John you are right, almost all of the flavor (other than the sweet, sour, etc sensation) is on the exhale. I often see folks talking about juices and how subjective the flavors can be from one person to the next. I have seen people say how can it be so subjective, or that this word is used too often in the community. The article helped me understand ahhh that's why..now you can just say "You must have too many taste buds dude, or not enough!" lol. I mean that in a light hearted way of course.

Sweeney, I too find it quite fascinating. I too think it's more smell than taste, you can prove that by holding your nose closed and eating (or vaping) something you don't like..I used to do this as a kid while my mom was giving me cough medicine haha.

I'm happy I can taste my cappucino juice again, I missed it so much.