Taste, Time & TikTok

I refuse to blame my age, but I find it really hard to keep up with TikTok trends. Now and then, however, there is something that catches my attention. One of these latest crazes is mixing wine with milk! (Click here for #milkandwine ) What? Yes, to such a degree that even Wine Enthusiast published an article on why it might not be a bad idea. (Read more ) What is happening to our palates?!

At the recent?Wine Summit in Cape Town, Felicity Carter said that we have to understand the new consumer palate. Perhaps modern consumers do not find the taste and flavour of wine exciting as they are exposed to such a wide variety of flavour profiles. Long gone are the days of classic salt and vinegar chips, lemon iced tea or chocolate with hazelnuts. The choice of flavours is not only incredible, but these flavours are also bright and punchy. There’s little subtlety involved and products are easy to enjoy without any effort to identify strawberry from raspberry. The colour, the name and the taste make it easy to know what flavour to expect whether you are enjoying a cookie or a cocktail!

I had a similar realisation at the Fynbos experience I attended a week or two ago. Even though some of the fynbos have quite strong flavours, they are nuanced and require a little skill perhaps, but definitely time and focus to identify and appreciate. Nowadays, even a familiar flavour like rooibos is often enhanced with the likes of vanilla to emphasise the sweetness and perhaps make it more palatable, but in the process it also hides the real intricacies and natural flavours.

There are many reasons why tastes and flavours are enhanced. We want low sugar, so more fat and flavourants are required for the product to taste like the original. We want low fat, so we need something in its place to contribute taste and texture. We all know what happens when we take alcohol out of wine. Winemakers have to add grape concentrate powders, flavourants or glycerol to add taste and texture to wine in the low and no alcohol categories. And sometimes when we have nothing left from the natural product, we carbonate.

But another reason, one that might be more aligned with the fast-moving pace of the TikTok world than our actual palates, is that we don’t have time. TikTok is all about a quick laugh or a quick bite of info. No wonder, I can’t keep up with its trends! We often talk about authenticity and creating real experiences and perhaps that is what we try to find on holidays, but most of our everyday experiences are driven by time – or the lack of it. A slow cooked stew might not need a lot of additives as the natural flavours are released as the pot simmers, but for the quick supper alternative, we need a sachet with a flavoured salt or oil. In the same way, identifying and savouring the flavours of your Chardonnay might require you to put your phone down, so you can focus on appreciating the wine.

In the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, we have come up with alternatives and options to ensure instant gratification. We are busy with many things at once, enjoying an after-work drink, cooking dinner, watching the news, catching up on last emails or social media, helping kids with homework, feeding the pets… Then, the upfront gin with cucumber and rose tonic might just be easier to enjoy than the shy Pinot Noir that also asks a minute of your time. While we might be losing our ability to be calm and focused, we might also be losing our ability to really taste.

As much as exotic combinations and interesting pairings keep the culinary scene alive, can it be that our palates are being spoiled with easy and upfront flavours? Such a loss of palate can be about more than the enjoyment of wine. Wine appreciation is just such a good metaphor for being tuned in to subtlety, intrigue and nuance, but if the ability and the desire to really taste are lost on a new generation of consumers, the loss will be for more than the wine category.

What to do? More than branding and blending, I think we need to find more time!