Simon Hartley has written a stimulating little piece about the importance of  ‘engineering’ enjoyment into an experience – in this case, specifically of tasting coffee in a competition. In that article he states that “They will all taste the same thing, but their enjoyment of it is highly malleable” – I beg to differ on the first part of the claim!

The sense of taste, as indeed any other sense, is influenced by a host of factors beyond the pure objective content of the coffee – analysing coffee to its’ minutest chemical composition cannot predict what it will taste like to one or more individuals. Their interpretation of the taste could be influenced by physical factors such as how they swirl the coffee in their mouths, the configuration and sensitivity of their taste buds, other smells in the room (70% of ‘taste’ is actually driven by smell – so there are another load of confounding factors) etc. If we now look at factors ‘inside the head’, again individuals will interpret the nerve signals produced by their sensory apparatus in different ways. Perhaps the classic is professional wine tasters who cannot distinguish many white and red wines unless they also have the visual stimulus to ‘confirm’ their taste. If we look further into that field, tasters have to develop a language with which to describe what they are tasting. Expectations also play a part, hence blind tastings.

So, what’s my point? Well, that we all experience the world in VERY different ways – our brains all interpret the objective reality (“blooming confusion”) in our own subjective way. THAT is why the tasters are malleable to what the barista helps them experience through their words and manner.

And that is also why you need to pay individual attention to how people are interpreting whatever messages you are seeking to send to them!