Okay - here's a theory I've been carrying around for a few years that seems obvious in hindsight but I feel has yet to receive the recognition, research and royalties it deservers:
For decades, "taste leaders" in society have been smokers, smokers damage their taste-buds something rotten and need a completely different flavour map to find a taste exceptional than non-smokers. A smoker detects no flavour at all until it is strong/bitter/harsh above and beyond the essence of 3 day old ash-tray.
Traditional drinks: bitter, red wine (old style, heavy tanin), espresso coffee - all harsh flavours to the non-smoker, but ideally balanced for the smoker.
I believe that any review of food or drink should be accompanied by the declaration of whether the reviewer is a smoker or not.
The preference for lighter beers in the US, for Robert Parker style fruitier wines than the old French standards, for lattes over espressos, all an indication that fashion/taste setters in the US over the past 20-30 years have been more health conscious so non-smoker compared to European equivalents.
As it happens, I am a non-smoker and after many years of practise have taught my taste buds to enjoy bitter/espresso (it was the social pressure I tell you), but I think I thoroughly deserve a research grant to perform extensive taste tests on US and European fine food and finer wine, and then to report back here when my eyes uncross, my weight dips back below the quarter ton and my nose stops shining in the dark a la Rudolph.
Genius I tell you, genius (now where's my Igor?)
Crash
