Gourmet Jelly beans … ooh, one of the best sweet discoveries. Each carefully coloured bean has a unique flavour. A tub lasts for ages as you can’t pour them into your mouth ten at a time … or you completely ruin the unique experience of closing your eyes and guessing the flavour. This taste adventure began to take me back and forth in my stored memories to specific moments in time.
“Food memories are more sensory than other memories in that they involve really all five senses, so when you’re that thoroughly engaged with the stimulus it has a more powerful effect,” explains Susan Whitborne, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts.
Here are some of the taste travel journeys the magic beans took me on …
“Mint sorbet” – took me back to when I was 5 years old and had my first ever sleep over with an American family who hung real candy canes and gingerbread men on their Christmas tree. This memory always links to diving down in this same family’s swimming pool to collect 1 cent coins from the bottom.
“Grape” always takes me back to when I was 11 years old and had my tonsils removed and my mum bought me loads of grape flavoured chewing gum. I also got my grey and white kitten, Smudge at this time.
“Granny smith apple” take me back to washing my hair with lumo-green apple shampoo and Watermelon reminds me of the “Body Shop” lip gloss. “Banana” flavour is snap to a local Zimbabwe chewing gum called, “Dandy”, that always lost its taste and went hard too quickly. This list goes on …
I wonder if this method of recall would work for studying. If I ate “cherry” when conjugating “Avoir” would that same cherry taste bring it all rushing back in an exam?
I think it would be a sweet experiment worth devoting some time to.
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