Can you taste a place?

Is it possible to taste a place? A listener wonders whether the French concept of ‘terroir’ can apply to food and, if so, what the science behind it is.

Ruth Alexander goes in search of the answer, exploring how growing conditions and practices can develop flavours unique to a location.

She also hears about why the value you give to certain flavours might also be cultural.

Ruth speaks to a honey expert who is mapping the flavours of the sweet syrup across the world, a barley geneticist working with a high-end whisky brand and visits a vertical farm in Liverpool, UK, to see if foods grown in a closed environment still taste just as good.

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Presenter: Ruth Alexander

Producer: Hannah Bewley

(Image: A barley field under a setting sun. Credit: Getty Images)