Gustatory Imagery: 80+ Show Don’t Tell Examples

If you’re a writer or you’ve studied creative writing, chances are you’ve come across the expression ‘Show, Don’t Tell.’

In literature and poetry, this is called ‘Imagery’ — the use of different expressions and figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. 

What is Sensory Imagery in Literature?

When authors use the imagery in their writings, they provide readers with the sensory details to help them fully understand the imaginary world created in the book.  

Sensory imagery works by engaging a reader’s five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and feeling) with concrete details that allows them to create vivid imagery of what is happening. 

New writers often struggle to understand the difference between showing and telling

But, Most of the authors know these differences, and yet they fail to maintain the balance between showing and telling.

If you’re one of them, bookmark this article that has over 300+ Show Don’t Tell Examples. These sentences are completely at your disposal. You can use them in your writing as they are. (Just put us in attributions, it’ll make us happy).

Before I begin, understand that there are 7 different types of imagery in literature:

Types of Imagery in Literature

• Visual Imagery
• Auditory Imagery
• Olfactory Imagery
• Gustatory Imagery
• Tactile Imagery
• Kinesthetic Imagery
• Organic Imagery

In this article, I’ll talk in-depth about Gustatory imagery.

Gustatory Imagery:

The Gustatory imagery appeals to our sense of taste by describing something the narrator or protagonist tastes. It’s most effective when the author describes a taste a reader might have experienced before so they can recall it from their memory.

Taste. The character gets a taste of something or tastes something. How will the reader know what it is or how it tastes? To provoke your reader’s taste buds, make ample use of gustatory imagery. Whether something is spicy or sour or too sweet for the character’s liking, the reader ought to savour or be disgusted with that. Besides food, there are more obvious objects which a person tastes.

Gustatory Imagery Examples:

1. Blood oozing out of split lip
2. Chlorine in water while swimming
3. Taste of a corroded coin
4. Overcooked Meat
5. Ink from a pen
6. Cement or soil a kid swallows while playing
7. Rainwater falling from the tin-roof
8. Chewing Gum
9. Tobacco
10. Fingernails
11. Runny Nose
12. Earwax/ Booger
13. Baby’s skin while kissing it
14. Shampoo/ Soap/ Oil
15. Snow/ Ice
16. Phlegm
17. Clay
18. Cookie Dough
19. Dessert Sprinklers
20. Toothpaste
21. Dust
22. Paper
23. Cold Metal
24. Mud
25. Sea water
26. Freshly baked bread
27. Stale broccoli
28. Moulded Pizza
29. Ripened banana
30. Sweat trickling down forehead

Adjectives which suit best the above written nouns are as follows:

1. Corroded
2. Gravelly
3. Grainy
4. Acidic
5. Ascetic
6. Bitter
7. Sweet
8. Sour
9. Salty
10. Watery
11. Muddy
12. Creamy
13. Citrus
14. Milky
15. Caramel
16. Chocolaty
17. Bubbly
18. Buttery
19. Burnt
20. Crispy
21. Crumbly
22. Crunchy
23. Nutty
24. Fruity
25. Coppery
26. Delicious
27. Delectable
28. Savoury
29. Rich
30. Succulent
31. Yummy
32. Sapid
33. Nectarean
34. Delish
35. Greasy
36. Oily
37. Gritty
38. Frosty
39. Flakey
40. Fishy
41. Fizzy
42. Fried
43. Floured
44. Fibrous
45. Frothy
46. Boiled
47. Foamy
48. Honeyed
49. Heavenly
50. Herbed
51. Herby
52. Grapey
53. Juicy
54. Tangy
55. Icy
56. Leathery
57. Lemony
58. Luscious
59. Overcooked
60. Undercooked
61. Powdery
62. Plummy
63. Pasty
64. Rotten
65. Red-hot
66. Rubbery
67. Sandy
68. Soiled
69. Seasoned
70. Snowy
71. Soggy
72. Sloppy
73. Squishy
74. Syrupy
75. Gravied
76. Tart
77. Ripe
78. Yeasty
79. Zesty
80. Mouldy

Before you leave, check out these 100+ examples on Tactile imagery to empower your ‘Show don’t tell game.’