Ode to the Five Tastes: Sweet

Celebrating the flavor that puts delight in dining.

It’s remarkable that the abundant, diverse assortment of bites, sips, and savors in the world can largely be distilled into five essential flavor profiles. Also remarkable is how adept our taste buds are at recognizing the distinct characteristics of each of these flavors, and the interplay between them. To that end, I wanted to explore the attributes and intricacies of each of the five tastes — and pay homage to dishes that bring out the best in them.

We’ll start with the most enchanting: sweet. Alluring to just about every palate and incorporated to some degree in most dishes, sweetness is the most accessible and perhaps the most universally craved of all the flavors. Most of us know that sugar is the wellspring of sweetness, but there are other fine ingredients that introduce this beloved flavor, from honey to balsamic vinegar.

It’s no coincidence that confections form the finale of a dining experience: energy-rich sugar incentivizes the brain to eat, so when we see, smell, or even hear about a chocolate soufflé or a glazed fruit tart, our body hungers after it. As a result, over time, desserts have become synonymous with pure, unadulterated pleasure. Sweet isn’t just a taste — it’s a sentiment, a quality, a mood, and a moment in time. Below, is a dish and a drink that celebrate heady, exhilarating sweetness.

Caramelized pears

Even Mother Earth has a sweet tooth: fresh fruit, organically infused with sugar, is nature’s candy. The natural glucose, sucrose, and fructose in fruits like apples, berries, and figs make them glorious bases for desserts.

Pears have been seducing food-lovers with their sweetness since as far back as 5,000 B.C., when a Chinese diplomat named Feng Li first cultivated the fruit for mass consumption. Today, there are over 3,000 varieties of pears all over the world. The bright, juicy taste of some of the most popular types, such as Bartlett or Asian pears, is decidedly sweet, but not overpowering. This delicate balance makes the pear a superb candidate for caramelization. Simply put, caramelization is applying heat to sugar — a process that enhances the sweetness inherent in an ingredient, while bringing out complementary undertones like nuttiness or creaminess as it toasts the piece to perfection.

Tossed in spices like cinnamon and vanilla and prepped in a skillet before baking, caramelized pears are almost as much of a delight to watch being cooked as they are to eat. (So good, in fact, that French astronaut Thomas Pequet recently chose to dine on them while in orbit). Here’s a classic, delicious take on the dessert from Bon Apétit. For an extra shot of sugar, swap pears for mangoes — considered the sweetest of fruits.

Sauternes

Dessert wines weren’t produced en masse until Dutch traders stationed in Bordeaux tapped into a demand for them in the 16th century. Today, one of the most esteemed entries in the category is Sauternes, sourced from the sub-region of the same name in Bordeaux’s Graves area. Sauternes is prized because of the integration of noble rot, a fungal element that intensifies the sweetness of the grapes. The confluence of the Garron River and its Ciron tributary in the Graves region creates especially fertile ground for noble rot.

Popularized by the Sauvage family at the Chateau d’Yquem, a vineyard which dates to the middle ages, Sauternes’ prestige reached unprecedented heights in the 18th century. Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were among its high-profile fans (Washington famously ordered 30 bottles of Chateau d’Yquem upon tasting). In 2011, sommelier Christian Vanneque broke records with a purchase of an 1811 bottle worth $117,000 (said to taste like “liquid creme brulee”).

The fusion of noble rot with the Sauvignon blanc, sémillon, and muscadelle grapes in Sauternes produce a full-bodied flavor that can be compared to apricot, peaches, or honey, with a slight acidic tang. Satisfying enough to stand as a dessert all on its own, Sauternes is often served as a digestif at the end of a meal, though it also contrasts nicely with savory foods such as blue cheese and foie gras. The succulent wine also makes a perfect pairing with fruit-based desserts — so don’t hesitate to uncork a bottle to enjoy with those delectable caramelized pears. Sweet dreams, indeed.

Danilo Diazgranados is an investor, collector, and lover of fine wines and a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a fraternity of Burgundy wine enthusiasts.