Curious Cloak | Cocktails

I've often wondered what makes people have the affinity for the specific artform and artwork they appreciate.  Art grabs the senses and shifts perception.  It quite literally touches the nervous system.  Cocktails as consumable, edible pieces of art, are a nervous system bomb.  The artistry of creating these nervous system bombs is certainly an art form.  

For as long as I can remember, I've also been curious about the human experience.  My training in speech-language pathology mixes communication with deglution and cognition.  I suppose it is a natural shift toward the tendency to pontificate culinary indulgences, the artistry of cocktails being one of them.  

There is an intersection within this epicurean topic of which I take a particular interest.  This is the psychology of cocktail preferences. Humans are wired for safety and prediction.  We know what we like.  We like what we like and that's what we like.  My question is:  how do we arrive at our culinary safe zones?  How do we decide that certain spirits are safe to our palate and some are not?  Is taste really in our mouth?  Does environment dictate our view of taste a little bit or entirely?   Is there an age that our safe zone is cemented, much like the development of our perception of sounds within a language?  What must exist to help us consider altering our safe zones?

The questions are endless.  I think I have these questions because I enjoy the challenge of shifting the nervous system.  It is probably a biproduct of my occupation as a speech-language pathologist mixed with my love for entertaining.   I have an affinity for the art of mixology and artistry in crafting a beautiful cocktail.  

I find myself seduced by the pursuit of uncloaking the mystery of the human nervous system. It's just fun to try to do with with cocktails.