Words for Aromas
Flavor Wheel & Terminology
A scent is quickly recognized but hard to name. A flavor wheel organizes smells into groups and gives you the words that express exactly what you're picking up in your nose right now.
What a Flavor Wheel Does
A scent is hard to put into words when it isn't assigned to a category, and this is exactly where the flavor wheel comes in: at the center are broad families like fruity, floral, cereal, smoky, or woody, and further out are individual, specific terms. "Fruity" thus becomes, for example, apple, pear, citrus, or dried fruit. This structure helps because the brain often perceives smells only vaguely, but recognizes them much more easily once it's presented with a limited list of possible words.