‘‘Why is it so hard to find words for flavours and smells? For one thing, smell, unlike our other senses, isn’t consciously processed. The input goes straight to the emotion and memory centres. Langstaff’s first impression of a scent or flavour may be a flash of colour, an image, a sense of warm or cool, rather than a word. Smoking jackets in a glass of Noel, Christmas trees in a hoppy, resinous India pale ale.’’

Mary Roach, writing about sensory analyst Sue Langstaff
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013)