HOW MUSIC AFFECTS SENSE OF TASTE AND BEER FLAVOUR
Neurogastronomy. Sounds familiar? Well, for some of you, this might sound familiar, but for the rest of us, it seems like a made-up word consisting of two other words: something that is connected to the brain and something else which is connected to the food. Well, yes, you got this one right. The etymology of the word suggests precisely that. However, this is not a made-up gibberish, but an actual, and relatively new discipline which dates back from the last decade. In fact, neurogastronomy is a science studying the complex processes that take place in our brain, responsible for inciting tastes we experience while eating or drinking. But, what does it actually mean?
When it comes to how we perceive flavours, research suggests that sound is in fact “the long-forgotten sense of taste”. No matter what our acoustic surroundings are, they can affect how we perceive the taste of the food or the drink we are having. Actually, whenever analysing the full flavour profile of a specific food or drink, we actually refer to its flavour, and most probably, its smell, the way how that piece of food or drink look like and how they are plated, and finally, to the texture they leave behind on our taste buds – however, we always fail to consider sound.
Most often, we do not even notice it, but different sounds, even different sound levels, may affect how we experience flavours, by intensifying them or, by dampening them. Namely, there are two factors that turn out to have the biggest share in how we perceive flavour: the intensity of tones and their frequency. It has been established that the intensity of tones affects sweet and salty tastes, while the frequency affects bitter, sour and the so-called “umami” taste, which is now described as the “fifth” taste category found in foodstuff containing high levels of glutamates.
No matter how we feel about what was said previously, we can all agree that when we are around loud music, we tend to perceive salty taste as less salty; high-frequency music tends to heighten sweet and sour tastes, while low-frequency tones intensify sour and umami tastes.
However, sound intensity and frequency are not the only ones affecting how we perceive taste. It all depends on the style of music, as some styles of music tend to reflect on the flavour, especially when it comes to drinks. For example, if we are listening to some powerful piece of music, then we tend to perceive the drink to be stronger and more powerful; on the other hand, if the music is gentle and subtle, then the drink tends to be perceived as much “lighter“.
In this sense, sound and music greatly affect how we experience different beer types, not only in terms of the flavour, but also in terms of alcohol contents. Latest research suggests that when we listed to certain style of music while drinking beer, it directly affects how we perceive the taste of beer. For example, if you listen to high-frequency music while drinking SKOPSKO, it will seem that the beer is much sweeter than it actually is. Conversely, if you are listening to some low-pitched music featuring strong bass, you will probably feel that your glass of SKOPSKO suddenly got bitterer and more alcoholic than usual.
These claims have actually been proven in a piece of research published in the Washington Post. Inspired by the research we have mentioned, which undoubtedly shows that sound is an important segment of the sense of taste, Felipe Carvalho from the Vrije University in Brussels wanted to see how certain sounds communicate with beer. After many years working as a sound engineer, he was able to create 3 different sounds that were designed to enhance perception of sweet, bitter and sour tastes in beer. He managed to gather 340 participants among the visitors at the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels, all chosen randomly, and has served them three different types of beer: “light blonde“ with 4.5% alcohol contents, then, strong “tripel“ with 8% alcohol contents and finally, the Belgian “pale ale“ with 6% alcohol contents, all of them having distinctively different flavours.
Three experiments were carried out during the research and each participant was asked to taste the same beer twice, but under the influence of different background sound stimulation. The participants were not told that they were actually savouring the same beer and it was their task to assess the flavour of the beer, along with the alcohol contents. It was interesting to see that majority of participants weren’t even aware that they were drinking the same beer twice in a row. When listening to the “sweet” sounds composed of high-frequency tones, they defined the beer to be sweet; when listening to “bitter“ music composed of powerful bass and low tones, they said that the very same beer tasted much more bitter and even more alcoholic.
You must be wondering what the final result was. Sound may definitely affect any flavour, including the flavour of beer. Therefore, it is very important to point out that even the recognizable songs and tunes that we hear on the radio or at home can surely have major influence. Thus, under the influence of Walt Disney cartoon-style music, or a gentle piano tune, our favourite SKOPSKO will appear to have much sweeter taste. On the other hand, if we were to listen to some disharmonious high-pitch tones, such as electronic music, we would notice an acidic undertone. Then, if we were to listen to a piece of music featuring deep bass, like let’s say, Leonard Cohen, our SKOPSKO would taste more bitter and stronger in terms of alcohol contents.
In fact, the ”sound” of beer flavour, or if you prefer, the ”beer flavour” of music, is part of our multisensory experience that make our enjoyment in a glass of cold beer even better. We are oftentimes not aware of it, but music has great influence of how we perceive each and every taste and, therefore, it is no coincidence that neurogastronomy suggests that sound is our ”long-forgotten sense of taste”, no matter how unreal this might sound. From now on, whenever thinking about the flavour of your beer, you have many more reasons to look further than your tongue and your nose.
So, the next time you will be craving a sip of light pale lager, try out our favourite SKOPSKO Smooth, and let Frank Sinatra’s delicate notes give you additional sweetness and refreshment in these sunny days. Cheers!
