From: Andy Soos, ENN
Published May 17, 2012 01:41 PM

Taste and Temperature

Some people like food or beverages hot and some like them cold. What's the difference? Can the temperature of the food we eat affect the intensity of its taste? It depends on the taste, according to a new study by Dr. Gary Pickering and colleagues from Brock University in Canada. Their work shows that changes in the temperature of foods and drinks have an effect on the intensity of sour, bitter and astringent tastes but not sweetness. Their work is published online in Springer's Chemosensory Perception journal. Humans receive tastes through sensory organs called taste buds concentrated on the top of the tongue. Taste is sensed through taste cells, which are known as taste buds. There are about 100,000 taste buds that are located on the back and front of the tongue. Others are located on the roof, sides and back of the mouth, and in the throat.


Temperature can be an essential element of the taste experience. Food and drink that in a given culture is traditionally served hot is often considered distasteful if cold, and vice versa. For example, alcoholic beverages, with a few exceptions, are usually thought best when served cold, but soups—again, with exceptions—are usually only eaten hot.

A cultural example is soda. In North America it is almost always preferred cold, regardless of season. In South America lukewarm soda is almost exclusively consumed in winter.


Over three study sessions, 74 participants recruited from Brock University and the local community (a combination of thermal tasters, super tasters i.e. people who are particularly sensitive to tastes in general, and regular tasters) tasted sweet, sour, bitter and astringent solutions at both 5 C and 35 C. They were then asked to rate the intensity of the tastes over a period of time.






For further information see Taste or Taste Abstract.

Hot Coffee image via Wikipedia.

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