A California company taught a computer to “taste” wine. Founder Katerina Axelsson says Tastry uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze “tens of thousands of wines a year”, providing lots of data to help winemakers improve their products and attract new customers.

Axelsson formed her idea as a chemistry student working at a factory, where she noticed how wine was evaluated. She began analyzing wine, identifying thousands of compounds (化合物). Using AI, she could see how these compounds interacted with each other, creating the wine’s flavor profile (味道分析). She then took that profile and used machine leaning to compare it with other wines in the database.

The method allowed Axelsson to develop an app named Tastry. Through a quiz, consumers could input their flavor preferences, and the software would recommend a suitable wine with 80%-90% accuracy.

Winemakers pay to have their bottle analyzed and in exchange they could get some data with which they can identify how their wine is viewed in their market of opportunity, on a store, local or regional level.

O’Neill Vintners and Distillers, one of the largest wine producers in California uses Tastry but “Tastry is not a replacement for the modern winemaking team,” he says, “However, that data can be pretty powerful.”

Ronan Sayburn, a private members club for wine lovers, says, “It’s like having a computer analyze a piece of art. I don’t know why people would follow what a computer tells them to drink, based on what they had previously.” He adds, “I think part of the appeal of wine is forming your own opinions.”

Axelsson agrees that Tastry is not a substitute for a sommelier (品酒师), but she says, “If the use case is there and the value is there, I think it’s just a matter of time before people really accept it.”

It is quite natural for all of us to want to preserve and protect the foods we purchase. With that in mind, we always think that the best way to do that is by putting them in our refrigerators. However, the following foods should never be placed in the fridge.

◆ Bananas

Bananas should never be placed inside the refrigerator because they keep nutrients better outside the fridge. Bananas are better kept on the counter until they ripen. The cold temperatures actually slow down the ripening process of the bananas, while the wetness and darkness of the fridge will only lead to rotting.

◆Potatoes

Potatoes should be placed in a cool, dry and dark space. The cold temperature of the fridge can turn starch (淀粉) into sugar more rapidly. It is also recommended that potatoes be removed from plastic or paper bags they may have been placed in. Also, keep them unwashed, as well in an uncovered cardboard box.

◆Garlic(大蒜)

Placing garlic in your refrigerator will actually cause it to shoot. The garlic will also rotten and even rubbery. Moreover, inside your fridge, the look of the garlic will rarely change. This means you won’t be able to tell if it’s any good until you finally slice it open.

◆Onions(洋葱)

Placing your onions inside your refrigerator will eventually end up turning them rotten and soft. Unpeeled onions should be kept out of plastic bags and fridge. One of the reasons for this is because unpeeled onions require and need air exposure for maximum life. If you have peeled (剥皮) an onion though, then you should keep it in the fridge, in a covered container.

Starting in early January, 15-year-old Abby Gagne spent some weekends walking through snow in the 330 acres of woods around her house “tapping” trees. Abby’s family are sugar makers. For five generations, her family have collected sap from maple trees. They boil it down into the thick sweet syrup that North Americans love to apply on their pancakes.

Abby’s dad, Jason drills holes 1.5 inches deep into the trunks of maples in the woods. Sugar makers tap only older trees. These are usually at least 40 years old and 10 inches thick at chest height. They stick a tap into each hole, usually one per tree. Taps made of plastic are used for sap to flow through. They will come out at the end of the season, and the holes will return to health.

Plastic tubes hook up to the taps and connect them to one another. The sap flows into a collection tank in the woods. From the collection tank, the Gagnes pump the sap into a ma-chine to remove a lot of the sap’s water.Then it’s moved into an evaporator in a building called “sugar house”. The Gagnes make a fire out of maple wood chips. The fire heats the sap and boils it. When it reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is ready to be made.

Syrup is poured into glass or plastic bottles. But 150 years ago, sugar makers used tin cans. These containers could prevent syrup from seeping out and allowed them to ship it far from home and helped maple become a big business.

Sugar makers should thank native Americans for their knowledge. White settlers as early as 1600s learned the craft from the Ojibwe and other tribes. Early native techniques were similar to those sugar makers use now except that they collected sap in bark bowls before boiling it over an open fire. Either way, the resulting maple syrup was, and is tasty.