When we talk about taste, our favorite foods are also discussed. However, there is a dissonance between what our favorite food is and why it is our favorite. It’s infrequent that someone will say that their favorite food is “the pizza from X” vs just saying “pizza”. But, the specific location is what allows us to actually identify with a flavor profile on an emotional level. It also can vary based on a foods specific taste, texture, makeup, etc. A great example of this is my favorite drink, Hot Chocolate. Hot cocoa is different everywhere you try it. A basic, more watery HC will remind me more of late night studying and casual winter days, but a rich, thick HC could remind me of the restaurant I went to in Quebec, or a homemade cocoa from my grandmother. Taste is so complicated because it allows a single food/flavor/object to hold so many different possible emotions.
I will never forget the hot cocoa I had with two of my best friend’s at the top of a ski mountain in Colorado. That hot cocoa was gross, tasted more like a mocha, and wasn’t well dissolved. But, that type of mediocre drink always brings me back to that moment with those people. I drink hot cocoa often, but I only get to visit that memory rarely. Taste can carry so many vivid memories