Maybe we’re having an off-week, but we literally cannot think of anything more weird and fascinating than this article by Nicola Twilley. An excerpt, below.
“Along the way, Spence has found […] that coffee tastes nearly twice as intense but only two-thirds as sweet when it is drunk from a white mug rather than a clear glass one; […] and that bittersweet toffee tastes ten per cent more bitter if it is eaten while you’re listening to low-pitched music. This year alone, Spence has submitted papers showing that a cookie seems harder and crunchier when served from a surface that has been sandpapered to a rough finish […]”
– “Accounting for Taste“, by Nicola Twilley for The New Yorker (Nov. 2, 2015)
We are such strange beasts.
You’re a smarty-pants so you probably already know that taste and scent are deeply linked. In fact, many perfumers are working with taste, and the grande dame of perfumery herself – Mandy Aftel – is about to come out with a book on the very topic.
We’re excited to delve into this, and we hope that you will join us in stimulating our olfactory bulbs through bizarre and beautiful taste sensations next week at the IAO. All this under the clever guidance of artist (and former experimental flavorist at Soylent) Sean Raspet.
– Your friends at the Institute for Art and… Gustation?
