What is cloying?

What Does cloying Mean

When something is cloying , it is said to be cloying . This idea comes from the verb cloying , which is often used with respect to what a food does when it is excessively sweet or what someone or something produces that causes satiety.

For example: “I liked the coconut cake , although it was a bit cloying” , “If you don't want the dish to be cloying, I suggest you reduce the amount of sugar” , “My ex-boyfriend was cloying: he called me about ten times a day to remind me how much he loved me… ” .
The adjective cloying, therefore, is linked to sweetness . A sweet flavor is one that is not salty, acidic or bitter. It is generally related to a pleasant sensation on the palate, such as that generated by sugar. However, when that sweetness is too intense or marked , the food in question becomes cloying.

A cup of hot chocolate sweetened with a tablespoon of sugar is a drink that possibly most people like. On the other hand, if five tablespoons of sugar are added to the chocolate, it will turn into something cloying. In that case, drinking the chocolate will no longer be pleasant, but will cause a certain discomfort due to an unpleasant sensation.
Cooking is an art that requires a lot of practice but also a special intuition to know what ingredients to combine, how to use them and with which products to complement them to achieve the best results in terms of taste , texture and consistency, among other factors. Too much sugar can ruin a dish, as can salt and pepper, something that is extremely frustrating, especially when the preparation has been done with dedication and enthusiasm.
In some cases it is possible to "save" a cloying dish, combining it with some sour ingredient, which serves to reduce the sweetness; for example, if a cream is too sweet we can accompany it with certain fruits such as apple or strawberry (also called strawberry ). However, this measure does not always give us the result we hope for, and then we must make the decision to endure the cloying taste, hoping to improve the recipe for the next time.
The excess of sweetness in the treatment can also be considered cloying. When someone exaggerates in their manifestations of affection and docility, many times it ends up annoying. If a subject constantly gives his partner chocolates, bouquets of flowers and teddy bears, you can designate it as cloying.
This unpleasant effect can arise in a close relationship or even a work one, if the other person flatters us excessively, without a reasonable limit and dirtying the communication. For example, if a television host welcomes a music group and between song and song he does nothing but flatter them, his attitude can be cloying; Beyond the admiration you may feel for the interpreters, a varied dialogue is always preferable, including questions about your career and your plans rather than focusing on repetitive statements that may make the interlocutor uncomfortable.

The fact that we associate love and affectionate attitudes with the sweet taste is one of the curiosities of our and other languages, although not all, since it is still arbitrary. In principle, we could say that the fact that so many people are fascinated by sweet dishes gave rise to this association with well-being caused by the positive feelings of those around us; However, we should not forget that there are those who do not enjoy sweet desserts, with which in a parallel reality the language could have leaned towards another of the flavors to relate it to these feelings.