A couple of evenings ago I went to Sauvie Island with some friends to pick berries. After trying some of the many strains available, I chose Hoods because the season is short and I’m only human. (Once you’ve experienced the sugary flesh of a hood strawberry, it’s hard to go back to giant, watery driscolls.) After plucking an apartment at a time, my berry picking companions and I enjoyed a bowl of freshly picked berries, store-bought Angel cake and whipped cream from a canister. It was a perfect moment.
The next morning I got some berries out of my mouth, straight from the fridge. They didn’t taste the same. They were less sweet, tart and spicy on the tongue. Had I eaten all the best the night before? (No.) Has the idyllic setting influenced your taste? (Kind of yes, but that wasn’t the problem.)
To like Cheese and various other foods, Berries simply taste better at room temperature. Warmer temperatures help the nose and mouth perceive their aromatic flavors, which means they taste and smell better. (By “aromatic” I mean “have a pleasant aroma” that doesn’t have “carbon rings with alternating pi bonds,” although there is some overlap between the two.) Cold temperatures dampen flavors and smells, which is why my berries tasted like them in the morning rather hot and sour than sweet and jammy.
This doesn’t mean you should store your berries at room temperature. Berries tend to spoil and go moldy quickly, so keep them in the refrigerator – unwashed – until you can eat them, then wash them and let them hang at room temperature for 15-30 minutes. The wait may seem endless, but the rewards – the sweet and fragrant rewards – will be well worth that quarter or half hour. For one, I didn’t spend hours squatting in a drizzle field eating rushed, chilled, tasteless berries.
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