# Sommeliers: is there anything consumable that doesn't have a sommelier? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 28, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256 "2016-11-28T03:35:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/1 "2016-11-28T03:35:49Z")
A recent thread on beer sommeliers made me wonder about the question in the subject line. After some digging, I found an [article](http://www.menshealth.com/guy-wisdom/spot-the-fake-sommelier) in _Men’s Health_ that reported on sommeliers for these items: [ul] [li] beer, also called cicerone[/li][li] donuts[/li][li] juice[/li][li] water[/li][li] hot sauce[/li][li] milk[/li][li] bread[/li][/ul] OK, you may think that was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Au contraire, mon frère. There are others, of course. Here’s what I’ve been able to find with some googling: [ul] [li] tea[/li][li] coffee, also known as a cupper, I think[/li][li] cheese, also known as a fromager[/li][li] marijuana (interpener)[/li][li] fruit and vegetables – seems to be a Japanese thing[/li][li] salt (selmelier – seems to be one guy in Portland, don’t think there’s any others)[/li][/ul] After this, I thought “lets take this to the extreme, how about _air_; is there an air sommelier?” Well it turns out there are such beings, but they’re not employees of oxygen bars. Instead, they’re employed by airlines. They’re wine sommeliers, but for airline food. I have a feeling there’s more. What have I missed? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/2 "2016-11-28T05:38:06Z")
Just realized I missed one from the _Men’s Health_ article: mustard. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/3 "2016-11-28T12:10:49Z")
You’re missing the profession with probably the best noses and most arcane olfactory sensory knowledge of all: [perfumers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfumer). Great list, and I really liked your cicerone thread. I’d count perfumes as a consumable. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/4 "2016-11-28T13:47:24Z")
Please explain how perfume is consumable. (I think you might be doing it wrong!) ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/5 "2016-11-28T13:52:21Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Please explain how perfume is consumable. > > (I think you might be doing it wrong!) You’ll have to ask the aforementioned perfumer how this is done. I suspect his shit comes out smelling like roses. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/6 "2016-11-28T13:57:31Z")
Sommeliers are for wine. Other uses of the word are at best unimaginative and at worst pretentious bullshit. If a thing - eg beer - can support a sommelier-like expert then it stand on its own two feet and invent/revive its own title. If sake can support sommelierosity then there must be a japanese word already. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/7 "2016-11-28T14:22:27Z")
> [@nicky](#): > > Sommeliers are for wine. > > Other uses of the word are at best unimaginative and at worst pretentious bullshit. > > If a thing - eg beer - can support a sommelier-like expert then it stand on its own two feet and invent/revive its own title. If sake can support sommelierosity then there must be a japanese word already. Well then we should make up new names. Suggestion #1: Doughnut sommelier =\> Homer (Mmm…doughnuts…) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/8 "2016-11-28T19:35:52Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Please explain how perfume is consumable. > > (I think you might be doing it wrong!) Ha, ha, but like toilet paper, perfume is a consumer good that is purchased and used, with each use diminishing the amount of the total good remaining. So, ‘consumable,’ if not food and drink. Or smoke, in the case of the interpener (“Weed guy” if you’re a classicist.) Where perfumer doesn’t meet the sommelier description is that a perfumer usually isn’t making recommendations to you the terminal consumer on which type of scent to use, or what scent will go best with the primary activity you’re engaging in, nor are they receiving compensation from that consumer for their services. The salesperson working the perfume counter at Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales might be doing all of those things, but they don’t have a snazzy title for their position. That I know of. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/9 "2016-11-28T20:49:30Z")
Some of them have new names, and I’ve mentioned those I’m familiar with. But there doesn’t seem to be a new name for a tea sommelier, for example. And I’m sure there’s a Japanese word for a fruit and vege sommelier, but I didn’t run across it. Etymologically, there’s nothing about the word _sommelier_ to indicate it’s about wine, so you’d think purists wouldn’t object to its extension to other things. But of course, they will anyway. As for the argument about perfume, I guess I used the wrong term. I should have said _ingestible_ instead of _consumable_. I can’t change the subject line, so let’s just assume I said that. Not all the sommeliers actually interact with the final consumer. The air sommeliers do not, for example. They just decide what kind of wine the plane takes along to go with a specific meal. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/10 "2016-11-28T21:17:12Z")
> [@nicky](#): > > Sommeliers are for wine. > > Other uses of the word are at best unimaginative and at worst pretentious bullshit. It’s like brandy, where the unmodified word is understood to stand for grape brandy but there’s also apple brandy and pear brandy and plum brandy etc. Why memorize a bunch of obscure words when saying “beer sommelier” is infinitely simpler than “cicerone”? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/11 "2016-11-28T21:55:07Z")
I found another kind of sommelier: soup. [Another Japanese thing](http://kamukura.co.jp/en/taste/). And I thought soup only had Nazis… ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/12 "2016-11-29T01:43:43Z")
To answer the original question, farts. No one goes around sampling them. “Hmm, a delicate rot on the front with a putrid middle that leaves a lingering hydrogen sulfide on the tongue…” Yeah, I know it’s not a consumable. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/13 "2016-11-29T05:26:35Z")
I think this is just kind of a pretentious misuse of the word, like I’m also seeing with the word “curated” these days. Everything is curated. Hamburgers, decor, collections of kitsch in somebody’s show home. Maybe it’s not pretentious, and maybe it’s not a misuse. Maybe it’s just the new normal where you have donut sommeliers who bring you donuts. Curated donuts. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/14 "2016-11-29T09:21:46Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I found another kind of sommelier: soup. [Another Japanese thing](http://kamukura.co.jp/en/taste/). And I thought soup only had Nazis… It has dragons too… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/15 "2016-11-29T10:04:09Z")
[Malcolm Gladwell did an article called “The Ketchup Conundrum” which pretty much talks about this in reference to ketchup as opposed to mustard.](http://gladwell.com/the-ketchup-conundrum/) [And, of course, there’s a relevant XKCD comic.](http://xkcd.com/915/) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sommeliers-is-there-anything-consumable-that-doesnt-have-a-sommelier/773256/16 "2016-11-30T15:45:14Z")
A great documentary about becoming a top sommelier: [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4zeyuk8hL8)