Series shares real spices of life

To make the spices appear more vivid, the team used dynamic and microscopic shots, including time-lapse sequences of plant growth and CGI effects. "We captured key moments when the flavor forms, whether it's blooming, growing, cracking or changing color," Liu says.

The team also employed montage techniques using visuals of familiar flavors to represent the unknown. For example, to show the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppers, they used images of vibrating water droplets and electrical currents and fiery chili peppers were represented by using images of volcanoes and molten lava.

Narration plays a crucial role as well. "Many spices are unfamiliar to the audience, so we used familiar tastes to describe them," Liu says. "For example, fennel is like mint with a hint of fruitiness and a mild numbing sensation.

"For saffron, we found foreign writers who described it as having hints of licorice, honey, and so on. Instead of using adjectives, we used more specific terms, aiming to give the audience a more intuitive sense of the flavor," he adds.

Music also played a key role in "translating" the scent of spices. Liu says the team wanted the music to maintain the series' consistent style while incorporating different instruments and chord progressions to help convey each spice's unique character.

"For example, the music during the saffron flower harvesting scene was specially composed to express the vitality and freshness of the plant," he says.