music affects the eating experience?!

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Ever wonder why coffee shops tend to play jazzy piano tunes while fast food restaurants play pop songs? Or why restaurants that serve turn-of-the-century recipes play vintage music? Or how about the tribal beats being heard all over an island-paradise-inspired restaurant?

Sure, the musical backgrounds are supposed to give the restaurant its ambiance, its atmosphere. The music puts people in the mood to eat. In fact, restaurant operators have gone to get disc jockeys to customize their restaurants' playlists to match with the menus. There's even a pan-Asian television series called "The Kitchen Musical" where music takes center stage. Just like Glee.

Do you know, though, that the music being played while you're eating affects the way you taste your food? Researchers from Oxford University, Condiment Junkie, and The Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen in the United Kingdom have found out that by changing the pitch of the music playing while participants were eating cinder toffee, they were able to change the way the toffee-tasters perceived the confection. In a way, the scientists labeled music as either 'bitter' or 'sweet'. Music associated with the sweetness of table sugar tended to be high-pitched (like piano music in a hotel lobby) while music associated with the bitterness of caffeine were lower in pitch (imagine the low notes of the trombone in Inception).

Apparently, music is no longer just for the ears. It's for the tongue as well.

The next time you order that Choco Cream Chip (soy-whipped cream-add peppermint syrup) Frappuccino, listen closer to the music and think if you'd enjoy that venti cup as much as when hard-core rock anthems are playing in the background.

For those interested in reading the article, here are the details:

Crisinel, A.S., S. Cosser, S. King, R. Jones, J. Petrie, C. Spence. 2012. A bittersweet symphony: Systematically modulating the taste of food by changing the sonic properties of the soundtrack playing in the background. Food Quality and Preference 24(1): 201-204.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2011.08.009

Comments

  1. thebrainFebruary 17, 2012 at 7:04 AM

    This is quite interesting topic and very useful for me... :)

    Anyway, music also affects how fast or slow you eat, logically speaking if you eat with a slow paced song, you will eat slower as well and vice versa! So, in our cafe, our music is based on the part of the day, on when we want our customers to seat longer or eat in a jiffy... hahaha...

    Thanks for the info :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rochiecuevasFebruary 17, 2012 at 4:08 PM

      I'm glad that you find the topic interesting and useful. :) You're welcome.

      It's interesting how music affects people's moods and tastes when they eat. I never thought restaurant owners/managers really think about the music they play in their establishments until I read this. And then I started to notice the types of music I hear when I eat out.

      Delete

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