So close you could taste it

Posted by Sebastian Schneider on February 27, 2001

In Reply to: So close you could taste it posted by R. Berg on February 25, 2001

Maybe hes referring to "The [Ocean, Sea, Lake] is so close I can taste it.
Even if not, a possible explanation:
Tasting and Smelling are closely related to each other. In fact, if you say "this food tastes good" you actually SMELL most of it. This is because your tongue can only differ between a small number of sensual impressions (salty, sweet, bitter to name 3 of - AFAIK - 6 impressions the tongue can have). Most of the tasting experience comes from the smell receptors in your nose. And this can happen vice versa. If you stand in the spray at a cliff or similar, the water from the ocean is diffused into very small drops, and if you breathe through your nose you actually TASTE the air as well, thus you taste the salty air around the ocean.
This area sometimes (depends on the wind direction and strength) to several hundred meters around the ocean shore - and then you might say "the ocean is so close I could taste it" :)

Hope that helps and my english didnt mess my explanation up ;)

Cheerio from Germany
Sebastian