Feeding your Love’s FLAVOR Love Language

Whether you are dining out, taking out, or cooking in, feeding your love’s♥️love language can be romantic and exciting. Like the five love languages that are used to express love with one another — words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch — we have a unique flavor love language as well. We each have a primary flavor love language that when expressed makes us feel loved.

When we taste a food or sip a wine (or any beverage), we use our singular sense of taste. The taste receptor cells in our taste buds experience five basic tastes — sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami (also described as savory or meaty). However, to our brains, taste is actually a fusion of our senses — not only taste, yet sense of sight, smell, and touch or texture. The combination of these senses create what we know as flavor.  

Knowing your or your loved ones most pleasing tastes — sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami — combined with knowing one’s most pleasurable sights, smells, and touch or textures — can create a meal that makes one feel loved through each individual’s flavor love language. 

How do you Discover your Love’s FLAVOR Love Language?

Taste

What are their favorite tastes? For example, do they like sweet such as juicy, red strawberries, ripe figs, or gooey chocolate chip cookies? Maybe they opt for salty like oysters, nuts, olives, or french fries? It could be they like sour such as pickles, fermented foods, or tart cherries. Perhaps, it’s a combination of sweet and sour like sweet and sour chicken. Even further, their taste could be umami like sushi or slow cooked ribs with barbecue sauce. Lastly, what about bitter such as a rich piece of dark chocolate or vegetables like endive, broccoli, or roasted Brussel sprouts. 

Smell

What smells are most pleasurable to them? Aromas can spark feel good emotions that make one feel comforted and surrounded by love. An aromatic dish that restores good memories of childhood or a dish from a time that you shared with someone you love, lean towards being a pleasing, nostalgic experience. Personally, I love the smell of oregano, as it reminds me of my Nonna’s delicious Italian cooking. 

Sight

What colors or shapes do they like? Is it red, like chili peppers or strawberries. Maybe it’s orange, like turmeric or bell pepper. Perhaps it’s green, like leafy lettuce or asparagus. Even white, like oysters or popcorn. In similar fashion, the aesthetics of the table can arouse the sight sense. For example, the colors and shapes of plates that food is being served on has been shown to influence our decisions in whether or not we find a particular food appealing. Sight plays a big part in how we decide if we like a certain food or beverage.

Touch/Texture

Are they moved by touch and texture? The sensation of hot and spicy, like curry or salsas. Hot/cold, (or both) like a hot, gooey chocolate brownie with vanilla bean ice cream and crunchy nuts on top! Slippery, like oysters. Soft, like custard, tiramisu or mashed potatoes. Chewy, like chocolate chip cookies. 

LOVE

As my friend Krista♥️ beautifully expresses, “When love is present, we can experience a heightened awareness of our senses. We all have a desire to feel loved. Love brings vulnerability, honesty, transparency, and safety to the table. Love at the table, combined with flavor enhances everyday life, arousing our senses as a flavor love language.”

P.S. Read How to Taste Wine: The Heart of Wine Tasting next.