HAUNTED by SOTOLON FOLLOWED by its EXORCISM with PU-ERH

Bought some English muffins flavored with "maple syrup" for breakfast and had them today. You don't even have to open the package to smell the sotolon, also known as caramel furnace, the chemical used to give the muffins a maple syrup flavor. Then I toasted one, and the whole house has been smelling of the chemical since. I kinda like the smell, but this was a bit much.

Needed to do something to enjoy the smell again.

Remembered that in his book "Papilles et Molécules," François Chartier recommends trying a sotolon-containing food with a smoked or aged tea.*

I started with Lapsang Souchong, even though it wasn't specifically on Chartier's list — he recommends either a wu-long or a pu-erh. I love Lapsang Souchong, but had the distinct premonition it wouldn't work with the muffins. In Lapsang Souchong the tea's aromas are all replaced by aromas from the pine over which the tea was smoked. So despite being made from a black tea, Lapsang Souchong hits cold receptors (think of a cool walk in a pine woods).

As you may have guessed already, sotolon activates warm receptors. It was fascinating to take a bite of the muffin, and feel the flavor slowly develop. Then a sip of Lapsang Souchong instantly and completely obliterated the maple flavor. Stopped sipping the tea, and the sotolon flavor slowly came back.

Thought I would try real maple syrup with the tea. Neither tea nor syrup benefitted from the combination.

This image (http://papilles.telequebec.tv/content/images/content/labos/800x545/10.jpg) shows the This image shows sotolon as the aroma star, with sotolon-containing foods around it, as presented by François Chartier.

Clockwise from top: nuts, curry, fenugreek, maple, soy sauce, brown rum, grilled coconut, sauterne.

But an aged tea? Had on hand some 6 Mountains pu-erh that I got at the World Tea Expo, so brewed that up, toasted another muffin, and had a go. Even the smell of the two seemed to blend well, and in the mouth the result was warm and soothing, and somehow complete. Excellent recommendation, Monsieur Chartier!

With real maple syrup, the result was even better. Both pu-ehr and real maple syrup have some compounds that activate cool/cold receptors as well as warm/hot ones, though the latter dominate. When you eat two foods that each hit the full gamut of receptors, you end up with an amazingly complex experience. The warm/hot aren't eclipsed by the cool/cold, as they were when I had the syrup with Lapsang Souchong; rather you get very quick evolution of flavors brought out by each receptor type in turn, with the different aromas of the foods highlighted in turn. An evolution that you experience again and again as you take a bite then take a sip.

That's what I'm going to have for breakfast tomorrow.

* I have the English version of this fascinating book: "Taste Buds and Molecules; the Art and Science of Food, Wine, and Flavor" by François Chartier, translated by Levi Reiss. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Will do a post on this book and the ideas behind it at some time, but suffice it to say here that Chartier match the actual chemical compounds in foods in order to develop pairings.