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[pmillen]

I've written many times that I can differentiate between various woodsmoke scents but not tastes.  To me, smoke tastes like smoke.  I've often thought that those who claim to be able to taste the difference or identify what wood produced the smoke just had an unsubstantiated opinion.

I believe—If you don't have data, all you have is opinion.  I've found data.  Consequently, I've changed my opinion.
 
Synesthesia is a neurological condition where stimulating one sense (e.g., taste) produces a discrete reaction in a different sense (e.g., sight).  About 4% of the population have some form of it.  Maybe 1% of syntesthetes have sensory crossovers that affect their relationships with food.

So, about 0.04% of people can "see" flavor.  To them, different beers look different after tasting them.  They're at the apex of the tasting curve.  The rest of us are somewhere down it.  I'm probably near the bottom.
 
Now...I think that there are probably many people on that curve who can taste the difference in food smoked by various woods.  Some can probably even identify the woods.
 
BTW, there are lots of people who claim to read minds or determine color by texture.  To date, none have been verified.   

[Ross77]

I can taste the difference between hickory, mesquite and pecan. Mesquite is bitter and I don’t like it. This is assuming using 100% varieties. Once you start blending, forget it.

Could I tell you exactly what the wood was with a blind taste test?  Probably not with 100% accuracy.

[Bentley]

The little bit of testing we did showed people could not, they think they can, but they can't when put to the test!

I do believe in the "Super Taster"  I believe they are out there, but they would have to have a baseline of what X wood tasted like on Y food.  I can pick out Hickory & Mesquite smoke, and I can usually pick out food cooked with Mesquite if the fire was not clean.  But that is even hit and miss.

So in American there are 130,000 folks who might be able to do it...pretty rare indeed!

[Darwin]

I think with training & practice most people will be able to identify the major woods.  On the subtle woods I know apple from maple, but I am clueless with peach, cherry, pear...
Just an opinion, no solid science to support my theory.   

[pmillen]

The little bit of testing we did showed people could not, they think they can, but they can't when put to the test!

Yes, I recall that test and often quoted it. 

But, if the ability to tase is a gradual continuum, like above, there are people with abilities slightly less than the super tasters, and more people slightly below them, and even more people slightly below them...

So, conceivably, there are people who can identify the wood that was used to smoke something.

[grilltreats]

Regardless of the science behind it, I can certainly taste the differences between the popular woods like Mesquite, Pecan, Cherry and Hickory.  I do have trouble with Apple and Maple.  I often ask my wife what wood did I use and she is getting fairly good at identifying some of the wood used in the cooks too.  We have been at this for a while now and have learned the flavor differences over a good bit of time and practice.  This has been primarily done on a KJ with lots of wood chunks applied.  I really can't tell though on my pellet grill, but haven't used 100% wood varieties yet.

[bregent]

I can certainly taste the difference between the wood that I use on my charcoal smoker which is typically oak, hickory or apple. On the pellet grill with 100% flavor wood pellets, I cannot differentiate at all. 

[imahawki]

My other hobby is hi-fi / home theater.  People spend $10,000 on a power cable for an amp.  Not an interconnect, not speaker wire, a power cable.  Yet no one has ever passed a double blind, or even blind test detecting the difference between two power cables.  NO ONE... EVER.  There used to be a $1M prize offered to anyone who could pass a double blind test between two solid state amplifiers if both were properly designed and operating below the clipping threshold.  The offer stood for a couple decades and no one claimed the prize.  The point is, if you can't pass a double blind test, I don't believe you.  I'm not sure how rigorous Bently's test was but I bet it was sufficient for my conclusion that you can't taste the difference.

[grilltreats]

It would be hard for me to believe many longtime split wood cooks couldn't tell the difference between Hickory and Mesquite flavors at least.  They are very obvious and heavy flavors.  Maybe my tastes buds work well, IDK.

[bregent]

>There used to be a $1M prize offered to anyone who could pass a double blind test between two
>solid state amplifiers if both were properly designed and operating below the clipping threshold.

Is that true for Class A vs AB? I may need to dump my Forte Model 1, it's a power hog. But we digress....

> I'm not sure how rigorous Bently's test was but I bet it was
>sufficient for my conclusion that you can't taste the difference.

I'm not sure how his test was conducted either. I believe it's very difficult to identify the wood that was used, but that doesn't mean you could not taste the difference if you did a blind taste of food cooked with apple vs mesquite. Again, I'm talking whole log or chunks, not pellet cooking.

[SparkyLB]

I can only say that I can indeed taste a DISTINCT difference between mesquite and cherry.  Not so much that I know what mesquite tastes like, I only know that mesquite is STRONG.  Cherry is subtle, like oak and pecan. 

So, NO, I can't taste a distinct difference between woods, but I know if THIS wood I'm tasting is oak, cherry, or pecan; or something smack you you in the face like mesquite or hickory. 

The latter most two are are VERY strong.  Everything else is mild. 

[Ross77]

I guess I’m one of the select few but I can tell mesquite and hickory for sure. Using 100% pellets. I feel like those are pretty distinct flavors.

[Bobitis]

I've never thought about it much, much less tried to compare any two products.

I have a Traeger JR and an 18" WSM. I can load the WSM with charcoal, add a couple fist sized chunks of (pick any wood), and it will put more smoke on any meat than any pellet smoker ever could. When the WSM is running properly, you can hardly see any smoke. Just a light blue ribbon (if any). But boy howdy can you smell it. The Jr will huff and puff till the sun sets with very visible blue smoke. The smell is the same. The appearance is very different. Blue smoke (good) from both, yet LOTS of it from pellets, and little from chunks. That leads me to believe that pellets are an inferior product compared to whole wood for smoke profile.

Can I tell the difference? I would 'guess' that I could discern between mesquite and apple, or alder and hickory. Everything in between? Meh...  Could I tell the 'difference' between cherry in a WSM or oak in pellet form? Probably not.

Could I tell which device the meat was cooked on? Most definitely.

YMMV

[pmillen]

The point is, if you can't pass a double blind test, I don't believe you.  I'm not sure how rigorous Bently's test was but I bet it was sufficient for my conclusion that you can't taste the difference.

You have exactly summarized my feelings until I discovered Synesthesia, which is well-documented and tested.  You know how I feel—if you don't have data, all you have is an opinion.

But this Synesthesia thing turned me around.

Go ahead, though, hold to your view.  In the back of my mind I still support you.  Audio snobs, wine snobs, auto snobs, gun snobs, the entire spectrum of snobs give me a pain in my pork butt.  I would love to prove BS to anyone who says their sense of taste is that developed.  But, as of my exposure to the Synesthesia literature, I can't.

[MN-Smoker]

Here's the deal, to the average guest sitting at your table, they'll be able to tell if it taste "smokey" or "Not-smokey" and that's about it.

Some might prefer one smoke over another, but I would suggest it had more to do with other factors (the cut of meat, the seasoning, the grill position, the temperature, the smoky side of the grill, etc) more than whether the wood was more of one or the other.

The other point is, maybe the person who was sitting next to the grill master smelled more smoke (from the grill master) while consuming one piece vs the next and their "taste" was affected more by the smell of smoke.

Just like buying a TV with 4k over a HDTV might yield you a better picture, the average person walking into your house and watching the game with you is highly unlikely going to be able to distinguish a bad TV from a good tv without a side by side comparison, especially when not asked.

When we grill food with our pellet grill, people like it or they don't.  (Most like it).  And it has more to do with the dish being well prepared, well seasoned, and most of all, properly cooked.