7 FACTORS THAT TRICK YOUR TASTE BUDS

FACTOR 1

UTENSILS 

Spoons made from copper or zinc enhance a food’s apparent saltiness.

FACTOR 2

LANGUAGE

People praise food that has a descriptive name more than the same food with a lackluster one. For exam-ple: Herb-Crusted Citrus-Laced Fillet of Tilapia versus Seafood Fillet.

FACTOR 3

TEMPERATURE

Often a warm beer tastes more bitter than a cool one, and ham tastes saltier when it’s cold. This “thermal taste” occurs because taste buds have tiny channels that interpret flavors differently at various temperatures.

FACTOR 4

COLOR

Forty-eight percent of participants in a French study rated soda in a blue glass as more thirst-quenching than soda in glasses of other colors, likely because they associated blue with cold.

FACTOR 5

ENVIRONMENT

British researchers asked people to describe the qualities of the same Scotch whiskey in three rooms themed as grassy, sweet, and woody. (For example, the first room smelled of grass and played recordings of bleating sheep.) Respondents largely came back with “grassy,” “sweet,” and “woody,” respectively.

FACTOR 6

EXPECTATIONS 

After sampling, French wine experts favored wine poured from a high-priced bottle over the same wine poured from a bottle marked as cheap.

FACTOR 7

MEMORY

Recalling a positive memory about vegetables can make the ones on your plate more enjoyable (you’ll take a bigger portion too).