In The Guardian's Word of Mouth Blog, Amy Fleming writes "sound is the final frontier in food presentation." According to research, sound affects the taste of food: tastes are intensified or lessened based on sound. Specifically, low-pitched sounds heighten bitter flavors and high-pitched sounds heighten sweet flavors.
The article provides a link to Condiment Junkie where you can try it out for yourself. You can play bitter - or sweet-enhancing sounds and see if you notice a change in the way your food tastes. Companies are betting it does - so much so that Ben & Jerry's is considering ice cream flavors with QR codes that "will allow eaters to access complementary sounds via their phones."
This raises important questions. Could high pitch sounds replace sugar? What food does big band music compliment? And, most importantly, if BBE were an ice cream flavor, what flavor would it be?
