In January 2024, I bought a Nespresso Vertuo machine and with it, a bunch of different espresso pods with which I make latte with added protein powder. Later I learned that one could reuse a pod to make two shots which is what I have been doing. Very economical. Now I have almost run out of pods and on the website of Nespresso, chosen the cheapest pods of various kinds and have them in my shopping cart, waiting for Black Friday deals. I am only choosing the pods that are the cheapest.

When I had more expensive pods from that initial large purchase – single origin, organic, what not – I could not tell the difference between them. They are described with those very interesting adjectives but for the life of me, I cannot identify these qualities of their taste or texture that these interesting adjectives are supposed to describe.

Now, with wine (which I do not drink anymore after last year my internist convinced me during a physical that all the supposed health benefits are purely associational and there is no causation), I could not taste the adjectives that describe wine. I could not taste "oak", "fruitiness" and all the rest.

On perfume reviews sites, people go on and on describing the scents in great detail. Yes, I get what vanilla smells like (and dislike it), what fruity is (and dislike it), but I do not get all the rest. And the list of adjectives and nouns is insanely long, so I wonder, where do people learn that vocabulary? And then there are top, middle, base notes of a fragrance. And I cannot imagine that all the reviewers have gone to school to learn that, so either they pick up this knowledge somewhere (where?), or... is it Emperor's new clothes?

Either that or somehow I lack the perceptive faculties that other people seem to have.

When I was a teen and then a young adult and still drank champagne in small quantities at events and celebrations, I knew that I preferred dry and disliked sweet. Brut which means extra dry was the best (or to be more precise, the least bad – I did not particularly like all champagne and am happy without it in my life now). But that distinction, between dry and sweet, is basic – it is like telling what is sweet and what is not which of course I can do. It is not about tasting "oak" or "cherry" in wine.

So... do I totally lack perception finesse or is this all Emperor's new clothes?