Taste that!

Taste That!

Written By Leslie Alexander PhD, RH(AHG)

Years ago, if you asked me what flavors I liked, my answer would probably have focused on a style of cuisine. I truly enjoyed then, and now, Thai foods and other Asian cuisines and I’m a great fan of Middle eastern/Mediterranean foods of most types. When it came to snacking? I preferred savory over sweet. I simply accepted this as my palate. Luckily, I grew up in a household where my mum was a sensational cook, my dad too but in a different way and both encouraged us to be adventurous with foods.

There were never any consequences for trying something and saying that we didn’t like it. Although, funnily enough, never much guidance or information was offered about “tasting” and “flavors”. These were words that were a part of everyday parlance. It wasn’t until I began studying herbalism that I began to consider and reconsider these words.

The introductory notes that follow are intended to offer prompts for further exploration, both from a culinary perspective as well as with an eye towards medicinal herbs.

So let’s start with “taste”.

Taste is a multi-sensorial phenomenon. While chemically based, I don’t believe that taste can be separated from our visual perception of foods (color/presentation), our sense of smell (in its absence taste can diminish entirely) and let’s not overlook the influences of texture as well as temperature. So what exactly do I mean when I say, “This tastes great!” or even “I love the taste of this tomato sauce”, this guacamole or even this butter? More to the point, what do you mean when you share similar utterances? These questions are not redundant. I ask in the hope that we can all pause and reflect, not just once but multiple times through the course of our daily fare.

It would be a great exercise to explore what it is that we each mean when we talk about different dishes, different cultural experiences of foods or, dare I say it, different flavors.

Ahhh yes, flavor!

How many flavors are there? Now that’s a great question! There’s no one answer but let’s dip a toe in these waters.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) recognizes five flavors. In Ayurvedic Medicine there are six; in Cherokee Medicine seven and David Winston* teaches about 10 flavors.

When it comes to balancing well-being and working with medicinal herbs, flavor is an important aspect of putting together any herbal formula. Not simply because as a practitioner, I would like an herbal support to be pleasing to the palate, but most importantly because flavor in herbalism is often closely tied to herbal action; and not simply an herbal action, but also the energetics and organ affinities of an herb.

Salsa anyone?

I like salsa … especially spicy salsa. When it comes to flavor, I know that salsa can be predominantly hot, or even sweet and certainly not just spicy. A spicy salsa also has a touch of sweetness from the tomatoes and a bit of sour from the lime that I add. When I focus on savoring flavor, and if I eat slowly, I can begin to decipher the complexities in my mouth.

What about you? Is this a part of your daily practice? Do you unpack flavors? Have you ever explored this practice with foods? Or even with herbs?

Five flavors

When tasting for medicinal purposes, it’s important to pay attention to two aspects of tasting. First to nibble at the front of the mouth, much like a bunny. Here we get a primary flavor and clues to the primary herbal activity. Then we swallow and our attention shifts to the back of the throat. Some people call this experience an “after taste”. Here we get secondary flavors and secondary actions.

The five flavors recognized in TCM are sweet, bitter, sour, salty spicy. So let’s see how these appear in the kitchen and in healing herbs.

Sweet

We often look to sweet flavors when it comes to nourishing and building. Often sweet flavors are both moist and warming. In TCM, the actions of sweet flavors like honey or wild fruits and berries primarily affect the Stomach (ST) and the Spleen (SP). Cooked grains are sweet; fennel seeds, carrots and of course stevia leaves (vs commercial extracts) are also sweet.

Bitter

We might say that bitter balances sweet. Bitters can be cold and dry. They can be warming and moist also. Chicory root, artichoke leaves, hops strobiles and broccoli raab are examples of cold/dry bitters. They can be used daily to support digestion, elimination and the skin. Fenugreek seeds are an example of a warm and moist bitter, while a fresh turmeric rhizome is an example of warming and dry bitter.

In TCM, bitters affect the Heart (H) and the Small Intestine (SI). Bitters are not a regular part of many western food and beverage choices. Here in the States, I believe that beer and coffee can be regular sources of bitters … perhaps vanilla too – but that’s real vanilla, not vanilla flavoring.

Medicinally, we might reach for bitters when working with any number of gastrointestinal imbalances.

One important point, which needs a general mention here is that as we age, and especially as we move into and beyond our 40s “digestive fire” often declines. If we are focusing on increasing nutrient absorption and assimilation then incorporating a personalized bitter formula at mealtimes will do much to enhance a declining digestive fire. 

Licorice roots, often used in oral care, are a solid example of sweet and bitter flavors coming together.

Maybe we all know sour.

Pomegranates, limes, lemons and vinegars are great culinary examples of this flavor. Sour however can be broken out into cooling and drying actions and those that tighten or astringe tissues. This latter group are also often drying but are generally neutral in temperature. The insides of a banana peel (yes, go ahead, lick it!), oak bark, blackberry roots are all examples of astringents. Often, sour is paired with actions relating to the Liver (L).

What about salty?

If we’re thinking table salt, we need to expand our consciousness. It’s true that in the West we’ve been raised on this cold and dry flavor.

However, in herbalism, herbs that are identified as salty often offer a blend of many mineral flavors, examples include tamari, soy sauce and even seaweeds. They are often dry and cooling or even neutral.

Nettle leaves are a great example as are spring dandelion greens. That complex mineral flavor can be found in horsetail and alfalfa too. In TCM, we think of them as being associated with the Kidney (K), Bladder (BL) and the lymphatic system.

Spicy

 Lastly, we can disaggregate spicy into three categories.

 Pungent flavors are generally hot and drying. Cayenne, wasabi, black pepper and mustard – these are hot and dry. We can also think of them as “movers”. For example, they help to promote sweating and enhance circulation, lymphatic movement, digestion and elimination. They are irritants and many are antibacterial.

Spicy flavors in and of themselves can also be warm and dry. Bee balm (bergamot), rosemary, oregano, thyme – they are all spicy. Too, they are antivirals.

The third subcategory of spicy is acrid. Some folks say it’s a combination of bitter and spicy – actually more bitter than spicy. Perhaps a bad cup of coffee (IMHO) might be classed as acrid, kava kava too. Acrid herbs are generally cold and dry. They’re irritating and sometimes catch in the throat.

As a group, spicy herbs are often associated with the Lungs (LU) and Large Intestine (LI) in TCM.

Practice.

We can think of flavor as a continuum, in so far as it is indeed rare that a food, a beverage, an herb or spice is solely sweet, sour, salty, bitter or spicy. “Five Spice Powder” is a beautiful example of combining flavors. Five Spice Powder is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds. Can you detect five flavors in this powder?

In a single herb, we can look to Schisandra berries which are also called wu wei zi or “five flavor berry”.

I encourage us all to practice unpacking flavors and exploring the flavors that bring a smile to our taste buds.

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* David Winston is an internationally acclaimed practicing herbalist and educator. Founder of Herbalist & Alchemist he has been studying, and researching an array of herbal traditions for more than 40 years.

Have Questions? Make sure to join me for my FREE Live Herbal Q&A “Ask Me Anything” on September 28th at 8:00 PM EST.