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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha and today, we're going to talk about 10 words for desserts. So let's go!
1. sweet
The first word is sweet, sweet. So sweet is that sugary flavor that you have in your mouth when you eat something that has, I don't know, natural sweet flavors I guess. So for example like fruits, many fruits have natural sweetness like apples or oranges have a sweet flavor. Then there is artificial sweetness like when you put actual sugar into cakes or cookies for example. There's that sugary flavor. We call that sweet, that is a sweet flavor.
In a sentence - I want to eat something sweet.
2. decadent
The next word is decadent. Decadent is a word that we use to describe something that is like super selfish. It's like ridiculous. It's kind of like crazy, how indulgent, how like selfishly delicious something is. We use it a lot for desserts. So we use it for things that are maybe very, very rich and we'll talk about some of these words later. So we'll use it for things that have like a really, really strong, rich, deep flavor. Maybe they have a high-fat content or a high-sugar content. Maybe they have lots of cream, whatever. Something that seems like it's just a super selfish, oh it's just too much, we can use the word "decadent" for that.
So in a sentence - This pie is absolutely decadent.
3. rich
So the next word is rich, rich. We can use the word rich for foods beyond desserts. It's not only for desserts, but it is a very common word we use for desserts. So rich means like a very deep flavor. It's often applied with chocolates or creams. So it has kind of like an image of maybe a bit of some fat for example. So it kind of has more of like an adult dessert image. So examples of things that are not rich are like popsicles which is just like sugar and flavor and water, like typical citrusy candies aren't really rich. They're very sweet, but not rich. So we use this for like chocolate cakes maybe or pies or puddings, custards maybe. So something that has like kind of a fatty and deep flavor about it.
So in a sentence - I prefer rich desserts.
That's true.
4. savory
The next word is savory. Savory is another word that we can use to talk about food that is… well not sweet. We can use savory for other things like meats, but for desserts, savory means something that has a rich flavor but that tends more to be salty so something that has a strong flavor, not necessarily fatty like rich, but savory refers to something that has a flavor like a strong flavor that is not from sweetness. But something that is savory is, I don't know, like I heard one time of like a bacon doughnut for example like maybe that's like a savory thing, I don't know. I did not eat the bacon doughnut, but that could be an example. So something that is savory is flavorful without being overly sweet.
In a sentence - I feel like eating something savory.
5. crispy
The next word is crispy. Crispy refers to a texture. So the feeling of a food in your mouth when you eat it is like the texture. That's what I mean by texture here. Crispy is something that when you bite into it, it makes that kind of crunchy sound or it makes like, for example, if you imagine eating like a cracker for example, the way it kind of crumbles into your mouth or if you eat something that's really really light like maybe a potato chip as well, depending on the chip, could be kind of crispy. Often, these are kind of like fried things or maybe they're for desserts like a wafer could be very crispy. So something that kind of crumbles in your mouth a little bit, it has sort of a pleasant texture about it, that's something crispy, crispy.
So in a sentence - This wafer is nice and crispy.
6. smooth
The next word is smooth, smooth. So smooth means it's free of any clumps or lumps. By free, I mean there are no lumps, there are no clumps. So we use this for example to talk about like puddings or like a pie filling maybe or perhaps a cake as well. So something that is really smooth means everything is the same consistency, there are no spots of, I don't know, there are no hard pieces in your pudding, I don't know, there's nothing kind of strange or different in the dessert mixture, everything is very smooth and consistent, it is all the same. So smooth is a good thing typically for desserts.
In a sentence - This mousse is so smooth.
Yeah!
7. cakey
The next word is cakey. Cakey can mean a good thing or a bad thing like if, for example, you are eating pudding and you described it as cakey, that's a bad thing. Cakey should be used positively to talk about a food that should be cakey. So in other words, a cake or a muffin or something that is cake like, maybe even bread to some extent like a sweet bread could be cakey. So cakey means cake like. It's similar to cake. So maybe it's kind of fluffy, it's a little bit moist. Cakey refers to things that are similar to cake. So if you use it like to talk about, I don't know, something that is not cake, it sounds like it's a negative thing. So like for example, the word cakey is used sometime to refer to makeup that is applied incorrectly. So if you apply makeup incorrectly, it can look cakey. By that, it means it looks like a cake on a person's face. You can see maybe like frosting, you can think of that. It looks like cake. It's a bad thing in that case. A person's makeup should not look like cake probably, bad thing there. However, to talk about a muffin, oh it's so cakey and delicious, good thing. So think about the situation where the word cakey is applied.
In a sentence - These muffins are pleasantly cakey.
8. moist
Next word is moist. Moist means it has moisture, it has water, there is like a sense of liquid. The opposite of moist is dry. So dry is typically a bad thing in desserts. We typically don't want dry desserts. Moist means it has liquid, it has moisture and it's a good thing typically, to have like a slightly moist cake. If you have like a super moist cake, it turns into, I don't know, porridge or something that's bad. But usually, some kind of moistness in your dessert like a pie or a cake is seen as positive. So moist, moist is typically positive.
In a sentence - This cake is so moist!
9. creamy
The next word is creamy. Creamy, the root there is cream so something that uses a lot of cream in a nice way usually. So we can also use creamy for like sauces too so like a pasta sauce can be very creamy or other foods can be creamy. But basically, it means that a lot of cream or the sensation, the taste of cream is in your mouth and it is pleasant. So it's typically used positively. I suppose it could be used negatively like spaghetti sauces, creamy and weird, I don't know, I don't know. Maybe, you can think of a creative way to use creamy in a negative way. But creamy typically is a good thing for desserts.
So in a sentence - Gelato is very creamy.
10. fruity
Okay, the last word is fruity, fruity. So fruity, the root here is fruit obviously so something which has a flavor-like fruit. It tastes like fruit for example. So lots of desserts use fruit as a main ingredient because fruits have natural sweetness. So many desserts are fruity. Beers are fruity as well, wine is fruity too, many other types of food are fruity. You can use this word outside of the realm of desserts if you like.
In a sentence - I like fruity desserts.
All right, those are 10 words for desserts. I hope that you found something to describe your favorite delicious treat. If you have a different word, I don't know, do you have something else that you like to use to describe a dessert? If you do, let us know in the comments for sure. So thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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