Nicola Twilley wrote about how our senses can affect the taste of what we eat, a topic that Centives has covered before.

• According to one researcher, half of all taste is determined by vision, sound, and touch.
• Chips that make a high pitched crunch are perceived as being fresher than those that make a soft crunch.
• Strawberry mousse tastes 10% sweeter if served in a white container rather than a black one.
• Coffee tastes twice as intense, but two thirds as sweet, if served in a white mug rather than a glass one.
• Adding 2.5 ounces to the weight of plastic yogurt containers makes the eater feel 25% more filled.
• Toffee will taste 10% more bitter if eaten while listening to low-pitched music.
• Juice boxes with labels that have concave lines – that look like a smile – sell better than those with convex labels – which look like frowns.
• Red containers are associated with sweetness. Popcorn served in red buckets can make people think that salty popcorn is sweet.
• Blue containers make things taste saltier.
• Cadbury’s Koko milk truffles might have failed because the hard “k” sound makes products taste bitter. A soft “b” sound can make things taste sweeter.
• Cheesecake served on a round plate tastes sweeter than that served from a square one.

Read more about the fascinating reasons why some of these associations hold true, how industries from restaurants, to hospitals, to carmakers are adapting the findings, and other fascinating details here.

Read our ongoing series on Foodonomics here.

Source: The New Yorker

Via: Marginal Revolution