Describing Flavor in Words

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

This is Leslie from San Diego.

Hi, Leslie. Welcome.

Hi, Leslie. How are you doing?

Well, we have a bit of a question at work.

Somebody filled the candy jar the other day with Whoppers, you know, malted milk balls, which we all love.

And we were talking about how they taste.

And people said, well, they taste malty, or they have kind of a malty flavor.

And we realized after lots of Google searching and discussion that we really didn’t know how to describe the flavor that malt adds to the chocolate without actually saying malt.

Yeah, I can see where that would be a problem.

What would you say?

I think of malt in my nose, sort of.

What?

You don’t shove them in your nose.

They go in your mouth.

Especially not the Whoppers.

You know what I mean, Leslie?

I’m surprised everyone likes them.

I know plenty of people that don’t like the malted balls.

I don’t like them so much.

You’re absolutely right, and it’s about 50-50 in the actual department on who likes them and who does not.

-huh.

Everybody could agree that there’s a very significant flavor to them that we couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Some people said sort of caramelly.

Some people said earthy or grainy or something.

But it was just sort of perplexing.

Yeah, I would probably fall into the malt haters category.

And I would describe it as sort of musty, and I feel it in my nose.

Do you feel it in your nose, Leslie?

Yes, absolutely.

Yes, you do.

Okay, it’s a nose thing.

So it’s not so much about the mouthfeel.

Oh, this makes me think of so many things, Martha.

There’s so many things that I want to say right now.

Can we do two hours on this call?

Yes, absolutely.

Well, let me ask you a question.

Leslie, I have a question for you.

How would you describe salt?

The taste of salt.

Oh, gosh.

Or sugar.

It’s sort of like malt with an S.

Yes.

So we have a lot of these really basic flavors that are only themselves.

I mean, we can come up with evocative terms and figurative speech and literary devices.

And you know what else this reminds me of?

Oh, I’m so excited now.

Now you know what it’s like to be a dictionary editor.

Yes, absolutely.

This is what I struggle with.

You sit around and eat malt balls all day?

The candy jar.

No, no.

You put Werther’s in there or maybe butterscotch.

That’s what you put in my candy jar.

Ew.

That’s the best stuff.

I don’t like that either.

That’s your problem.

I mean, just think of, let’s take this outside of food for a second and talk about colors.

Oh, my God, colors.

How do you define a color?

Well, the dictionary editors have hit upon two or three different strategies that I think work really well.

And you, Leslie, might also use for malt to describe the flavor of malt.

For example, if you’re describing red, you might say what’s next to it on the color spectrum, what colors it’s between.

You might also describe the wavelength of the light that makes an eyeball see red.

Okay.

In comparison, you might talk about blood is red, or you might certain flowers are red, or you might even use synonyms for red, like crimson, right?

And in this way, you call on the more universal experience of other people and say, well, it’s like these things that you already know, and here’s how.

And so when we talk about malt, I think you’ve already hit upon like earthy and grainy.

And some people describe it as tasting a little bit like garden compost.

Garden compost? No way.

For me, it’s more caramel.

Here’s where you really need to go.

Just like wine people, beer people in San Diego, as you know, is a big beer county.

Huge.

Huge.

They have lots of language to this stuff, and they talk about the malt flavor in their books about beer.

And here’s something that I’ve just found here.

Wonderful.

They describe the malt that you’d have in beer as it can taste like liquid bread with a yeasty, earthy richness.

Yes.

That’s an excellent description.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Sort of the bready, hoppy sort of flavor.

Yeah, yeah, that’s nice.

I feel that in my nose, too.

But malt, I mean, it’s also crunchy, right?

I mean, there’s the whole crunch thing, too.

And salt on the outside, if it’s got the chocolate on the outside, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know us, Leslie.

Food and language together.

That’s our sweet spot.

I know.

That’s our sweet spot, no pun intended.

That’s why it’s got their interest for as long as it has.

And, oh, my God, wine writing.

It’s a bit of a barnyard and tobacco and the smell of an old sofa that somebody sat in for three hours.

I like my candy to taste like that.

You know, Leslie, it’s funny about this, though.

Something really sad about malt.

They kill little sprouted barley to make the malt.

No, they let the barley seeds germinate, and then they boil them alive.

Oh, my goodness.

Poor barley.

So it has a bit of a taste of cruelty in it.

A hint of viciousness.

I never think of walkers the same when I eat them.

Oh, it’s probably all artificial flavor by now, right?

Yeah, seriously.

That’s true.

You can rest easy.

It’s a taste of the smokestacks of Hoboken.

Genetically modified malt.

Yum.

Leslie, I don’t know if we’ve helped you.

But we had fun.

You know, I think it’s at least confirmed that we’re not missing a very obvious answer.

Yeah.

And kind of just coming to the conclusion that sometimes you just have to describe the experience, not just that one target word that’s going to explain it all.

Perfect.

Yes.

And if you want more, go to the beer writing.

There’s books and books and books of it, all right?

Well, that should be fun reading and researching.

There you go.

Thanks for calling, Leslie.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for taking my call.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye, Leslie.

Bye-bye.

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