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Brian Finke

Taste buds hide inside papillae, the pale dots made visible here by blue food coloring.

On an estate in France, locals reenact the ancient process of winemaking.

A Texas butcher chops a side of beef into various cuts.

Outside a chicheria in Lamay, Peru, in the Sacred Valley of the Inca Empire, Lucio Chávez Díaz drinks a glass of chicha frutillada, a corn beer flavored with strawberries. The pure beers, wines, and spirits of today are a historical exception; alcoholic beverages have long been doctored with everything from pine needles to tree resins to honey. This photo was originally published in "Our 9,000-Year Love Affair With Booze," in February 2017.

A Georgian vintner crushes grapes by foot in a traditional wine press known as a satsnakheli.

The wine grape may have originated at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, which has more than 500 indigenous varieties.

Winemaking has deep roots in the nation of Georgia, where a vintner pours a traditional white wine from a cup inscribed with the names of his forebears.

Large, beeswax-lined qvevri are still used by Georgian winemakers, who bury the jars up to the neck and use them for generations.

A test that stains the tongue blue, as shown here at a lab at the University of Florida at Gainesville, helps determine if a subject is a supertaster, or someone most sensitive to various tastes. From “Beyond Taste Buds: The Science of Delicious”