![]() ![]() Cooling the same area conjures sourness and/or saltiness. A study published in the journal Nature in 1999 found that, for example, warming the front edge of the tongue (where the chorda tympani nerve is), from a cold temperature, can evoke sweetness. Heating or cooling certain parts of the tongue can create the illusion of certain tastes. However, our full explanation, so far, as to how temperature affects the balance of tastes is infinitely more complicated and nuanced, with the concentration of taste compounds in the food another key factor, along with variations in taste sensitivity among individuals and the fact that other sensory components of the tongue are heat-sensitive, too. Some of these effects, such as the over-sweet melted ice-cream, occur because the taste receptor TRPM5 (which picks up sweet, bitter and umami tastes) sends a stronger electrical signal to the brain when food is warmer. Ham tastes saltier when cold and more savoury when warm. ![]() Beer, on the other hand, tastes more bitter as it gets warmer. It's true: melted ice-cream is too sickly to drink, whereas when cold, it is pleasantly sweet. Talavera Pérez, meanwhile, discovered in the same year why ice-cream gets sweeter when warmer. The tasters also found the warmest cheese more difficult to evaluate. The cheese was served at 5C, 12C and 21C and sourness increased as the temperature rose. "Perhaps we do taste at such temperatures," he says, "but we don't pay attention to it because we become worried about the burning feeling." How heat alters flavour balanceĪ 2005 paper published in the Journal of Sensory Studies found that the serving temperature of cheddar cheese affected how its taste was perceived. With very hot food, he hazards, it is possible that the burning feeling "masks" taste sensations, because it works as an alarm signal to warn us about the danger hurting ourselves. According to Karel Talavera Pérez, professor of molecular and cellular medicine at the University of Leuven in Belgium, studies recording the electrical activity of taste nerves demonstrate that "the perception of taste decreases when the temperature rises beyond 35C". This is a trick heading, I'm afraid, because no one has figured precisely how this works, physiologically. ![]()
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