TikTok: Sound Shapes Flavour

New exhibition Food Sound at the MUSE Science Museum in Trento, Italy, explores this multisensory phenomenon. The exhibition features a guided walk through mock-ups of trattorias and dining pods to demonstrate how sound is processed by the brain and how acoustics affect appetite, perception of flavour and emotional response.

Elsewhere, UK beer writer Pete Brown’s new book Tasting Notes: The Science and Art of Pairing Beer and Music lists 44 song and beer pairings across multiple musical genres and details how the music will affect the tasting experience. Accompanied by a Spotify playlist, the book was inspired by the writer’s public events, at which he suggests the best beers to drink while each song is playing. 

Meanwhile, Mars-owned chocolate brand Galaxy has worked with Dr Natalie Hyacinth, a composer and sensory researcher at the University of Bristol (UK) to create a 90-second soundtrack designed to be listened to as a square of the chocolate melts in your mouth. The high piano melody of the track Sweetest Melody supposedly enhances perceived sweetness, while harp and strings denote the smooth and silky texture. Meanwhile, the 78 beats per minute cadence syncs with the melt time of the chocolate. The track is streaming on YouTube and Spotify.

Elsewhere, the first release of Scottish distillery Fettercairn’s new sensory whisky series is accompanied by a piece of music created by Scottish musicians Barry Burns and Kathryn Joseph. The piece was composed based on tasting notes detailing the colour and texture associations of the brand’s Master Whiskey Maker, Gregg Glass, who has the synaesthetic ability to ‘taste in colour’.

For more on how tech can be used to tweak our experience of flavour, read Food + Tech 25/26, and for our earlier look at the connection between sound and taste, read Tech-Enhanced Taste. See also Mixology Trends 26/27 for more multisensory flavour engagement.