In Part 1 of this mind-bending conversation with distiller, blender, and synesthete Anna Mantheakis (@anna.distills), some of the topics we discuss include:
A working definition of synesthesia, for those of us who don't experience sensory spill-over in any given perceptual domain
The story of how Anna first realized that sound impacted her experience of flavor, featuring a 5-star restaurant brunch shift, a kitchen fan, and a batch of whipped cream
How synesthesia impacted Anna's journey as a wine and spirits professional, really challenging her to come up with creative ways to maintain consistency without completely dulling her sensitivity to certain tastes and aromas.
We also explore how she has worked auditory cues into her distilling and blending practices in order to enhance sensitivity and focus when tasting for specific compounds or flavor attributes.
Thankfully, these are just audio files, and this is a podcast! So you'll actually get to hear the sounds that Anna uses when running stills or evaluating barrels for blends.
Along the way, we muse on questions like: "what if the flavors I'm tasting aren't actually there?" "What if you could hook your nose up to a Gas Chromatograph?", "would you eat a taco with crickets on it?", and much, much more.