In idly browsing the internet, I came across this description of Booker’s, a bourbon, as observed by a group called the Wine Enthusiasts:
A first-rate, multilayered bouquet that includes notes of cocoa, cigar tobacco and paraffin with aromas of caramel corn, cotton candy, oak and tapioca. The palate entry features tastes of spice, buttered corn, bacon fat and cream; the midpalate displays traces of butterscotch, nougat, sap, maple and vanilla. Finishes spirity and biscuity. Add water to reduce the alcohol.
I’ve never tasted such a thing, and my imagination fails me: A combination of cocoa, tobacco, caramel corn, cotton candy, and BACON FAT? And cream, buttered corn, and butterscotch? And it’s all BISCUITY? And such combinations are experienced as tasting GOOD?
This description reads like a parody of wine connoisseurs, but it is in total ernest. Can a person have such a sensitive palate that can actually register all of that? It sounds like one of those confections from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”