Taste and memory, a discussion:

[settersbrace]

I've read Russ O's essay on the olfactory senses and how certain smells can invoke vivid recollections of times and places, I'm sure we've all experienced those déjà Vu moments when an odor reaches out and just stops you dead in your tracks as you try and process when and how you know that smell. I'm currently smoking some Dunhill EMP and I've smoked a good bit of it over the last 10 years, both the Murray's version and now the Danish version. Today I got a taste and room note reminder that harkened back to the Murray's blend, (which I happened to love) and it got me to thinking about how it's nearly impossible to "remember" a given flavor until it hits your tongue and then it's like instant recall. It just struck me as odd that out of this freshly opened tin, I could experience that after having smoked pounds of the same blend without ever noticing it. If this all seems to bizzarro to you, just say so, I can handle it. ;-)

 

[dottiewarden]

In my view, pipe smoking and olfactory sense memory go hand in hand. I believe that´s the main reason Captain Black White sells so well. At least every non pipe smoker i've talk to gets fond memories upon the first whiff. Nostalgia and pipe tobacco smoke go hand in hand for me, even to the point that I attribute my pipe smoking to the creation of a bridge between my past and my present.
Good thread settersbrace

 

[cortezattic]

Now and then I remember the characteristic smell of a country house I visited on summer vacations away from the city.

Even though that was 60 yrs. ago, and more, the olfactory memory recreates the experience for me emotionally.
I hear that a large portion of a dog's brain is involved in processing and using olfactory information.

I wonder how much they retain; how meaningful it is to them; and how they use it in thinking.

 

[settersbrace]

I hear that a large portion of a dog's brain is involved in processing and using olfactory information.

I wonder how much they retain; how meaningful it is to them; and how they use it in thinking.
A very interesting question indeed. I raise and train setters for the field, in my house I have an English an Gordon Setter. Know that today's field bred Gordon's possess a healthy chunk of ES DNA as it was needed to breed the size and cumbersome nature of the show line out of the modern Gordon. The one I have now is the second I've owned that are not related by blood but both display an uncanny ability to relocate "items" that they have cached away even months later. Gordon's are devilish creatures who like to steal things like socks, shoes, glasses, you name it and then they will hide the items and leave them be until they decide they want to get them out for a good chewing.
Some of the casings or toppings on the Lakeland blends remind me of a talc my long dead Grandmother used when she lived with us and that odor has always put me off and I've only tried those tobaccos a couple of times. The human brain is certainly a mystery, eh?

 

[cortezattic]

Smoking Lakelands snaps me back to the time I was in the boys' toilet at grade school, standing at a urinal trough.

It's not that Lakelands smell like urine so much as the urinal cake deodorizer. :lol:

 

[mso489]

When I was born, my dad pretty much smoked Granger all the time. When I lit up my first bowl, supplied as a sample

by my local pipe shop owner, it didn't bring back memories of the cradle, but it certainly conjured up some of my

earliest days that I can remember. The pipe shop guy and I had a chuckle over how dad's really are right about things

sometimes.

 

[woodsroad]

Both of my parents worked in a hospital laboratory (at the hospital where I was born), and I spent a lot of time there throughout my life. There were two woman in the Histology department, where they prepared the microscope slides made from the body bits that were removed during surgery. There were a couple of solvents used in the process, as well as paraffin, and to this day if I smell xylene, toluene or hot wax, I am immediately transported back to the lab, and to those two women who were always so happy to see me.
The same is true for Channel No. 5. My mom splashed it on whenever she and my dad were getting dressed for going out somewhere special. I'll still catch a whiff of it sometimes, and I'll simultaneously smell mothballs, even though there are none around.
Then there's black powder and gefilte fish....