WELCOME ONE AND ALL! NOTE: TasteSQ is currently configured only to the YumYuk.com pathway: a guide for people who are typically OVERWHELMED by the enormous selection of wines available and NOT people who are already have strong opinions and knowledge. Your pathway is coming soon but go in and get your buds done anyway. Learn how we are applying these principles in the Lodi International Wine Awards! The founders of TasteSQ postulate that people’s preferences in food, music, wine and all things "sensory" can be best understood in two primary dimensions: Sensory Discrimination and Aspiration Value. While people are distributed all across these two dimensions, the deep genetic and cultural influences at work mean, in reality, that people are highly clustered into groups within the Flavor-Aspiration Matrix.         Less sensitive         More sensitive TASTES WILL ASK YOU SIMPLE QUESTIONS ABOUT SALT, COFFEE AND MIXED DRINKS THAT ARE PROVEN IN MANY STUDIES TO ALIGN WITH TASTE SENSITIVITIES. AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW YOU WILL BE DIRECTED TO A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WHO SHARE YOUR TASTE SENSITIVITIES AND ASPIRATIONAL VALUES (NOTE AGAIN THAT ONLY THE YumYuk.com PATHWAY IS OPERATIONAL). Sensory Discrimination First, people have radically different capacities for Sensory Discrimination based on physiological differences in the number of taste buds you have. This capacity is genetic and is a direct function of the number of taste buds possessed. Hyper-sensitive Tasters comprise about a quarter of the population and can have well over 10 times the number of taste buds of Tolerant Tasters. Sensitive Tasters comprise the other half of the population spectrum. There is not a "better" or "worse" place to be – just different taste sensitivities. In fact our research shows many consumers who will drink only sweet wines in fact have the MOST taste buds. Again, this is not good or bad, just a physiological phenomenon that weighs heavily in shaping your personal wine preferences. Aspiration Second, your personal life experiences plus the amount of time and effort you put into learning about wine strongly influences preferences and buying behavior. Some folks are acutely attuned to and influenced by travels to wine regions, memberships or alignments to wine affinity groups and general cultural influences during their life. In the wine world, for example, there are communities of consumers are deeply influenced by the Wine Spectator/Robert Parker point systems (typically more Tolerant Tasters) or alignment with organizations that forward Rhone grape varieties, Zinfandel or "Anything But Cabernet/Chardonnay" crowd (typically more Sensitive or Hyper-sensitive Tasters). At the other end of the scale, a segment of the population focuses on finding great wines at the lowest possible cost. In the middle, value buyers desire a wine that simply tastes good with a balance between the wine brand and price.

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