Decanter Magazine recently took a sommelier (Mathieu Gaignon, the Connaught Hotel), a perfumier (Linda Pilkington, owner of boutique perfume house Ormonde Jayne) and a tea buyer (JING's Edward Eisler) and analysed their sense of smell, asking them to nose aromatherapy oils, teas, wines and perfumes. Edward Eisler came out ahead of the field, scoring 11.5 points, in comparison to Mathieu Gaignon's 9 points and Linda Pilkington's 7 points.
This is particularly interesting given Edward's unique approach to aromas: "Eisler admits he makes no effort to train himself to pick out different aromas or analyse the various layers of flavour in the teas he tastes. ‘It’s not what my job is all about,’ he says. ‘Instead I look to define what the tea is and where it comes from, then I look at what’s happened in the processing, which is where faults often occur. What you are looking for is a real clarity of flavour – which isn’t to say all the flavours need to be strong, they just have to present themselves clearly and in a distinctive way.’ Although Eisler was an inexperienced wine taster (hampered by the fact that he’s allergic to the stuff), he found the nosing exercise to be an interesting one. ‘Wine has an enormous amount to offer from an aromatic perspective,’ he says, ‘and I found I was looking for descriptors of the aromas far more than I do with tea. As for the perfume, I’m just not that into it."