Taste is a lyric meditation on one of our five senses, which we often take for granted. Structured as a series of “small bites,” the book considers the ways that we ingest the world, how we come to know ourselves and others through the daily act of tasting.

Through flavorful explorations of the sweet, the sour, the salty, the bitter, and umami, Jehanne Dubrow reflects on the nature of taste. In a series of short, interdisciplinary essays, she blends personal experience with analysis of poetry, fiction, music, and the visual arts, as well as religious and philosophical texts. Dubrow considers the science of taste and how taste transforms from a physical sensation into a metaphor for discernment.

Taste is organized not so much as a linear dinner served in courses but as a meal consisting of meze, small plates of intensely flavored discourse.

"Poet Dubrow (Wild Kingdom) considers the five basic tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami—in this amusing collection of essays. . . Dubrow’s musings are at once sober and evocative, and she succeeds admirably in getting “around the ungainliness of words by finding metaphors for taste.” These thoughtful meditations offer lots to savor." - Publishers Weekly

"Captivating, engrossing, and thought-provoking essays." - Lone Star Literary Life

"It is both learned and light, personal and general, experiential and analytical but mostly wears its wisdom lightly. It is an exemplar of the genre of sensuous and sensory writing." - The European Legacy