Oliver Wainwright wrote about how the tools we use to eat can change our perception of what we’re eating:

• As Centives has previously covered, the metal that cutlery is coated in can affect its taste.
• Because of their “reduction potential” copper and zinc add a sour, metallic taste to food.
• Since gold is inert it adds more of a creamy taste to foods.
• The science is important – if cutlery were to accentuate the taste of sweetness, then food could actually have less sugar in it.
• Scientists are also experimenting with other dinner items. A gold leafed wand can be dipped into a jar of Nutella to replicate the experience of licking your fingers.
• Coating a bowl in rabbit fur adds a more tactile experience to soup.
• The future may be electrical shocks delivered directly to the tongue to stimulate different taste buds.
• The technology is a ways away though –at the moment the electric currents just taste sour.

Read more about what future cutlery could be like, why it’s not that great to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth, and more over here.

Source: The Guardian