Take a piece of chocolate in your hand and take a moment to appreciate its texture and appearance.
Then try to minimize any extraneous sounds, take a bite and focus on the primary taste characteristics. This taste perception is now your benchmark.
Now that you’ve figured out what chocolate tastes like in sound-neutral conditions, we can extrapolate this taste perception to other sound environments.

Rinse your palate and play the soundclip below.
Take another bite and gently swirl it around your mouth as you listen to this sound clip – it’s subtle, so pay close attention:

Rinse your palate once again, take another bite of chocolate while listening to the second soundclip.

Did you notice any difference? You should have experienced a nearly magical 360-degree taste evolution…

The first clip should have made your chocolate taste more bitter, while the second clip should have made it taste sweeter. And yet, the chocolate in your mouth is still the same.

This is what is called ‘sonic seasoning’. Your brain has a preconceived notion of what bitter and sweet flavours should taste like, so when you take a bite of food, you have an expectation of where that food should be classified on the bitter and sweet scale.

In most cases, your brain cannot process all the information at once, so the high-pitched music draws your attention to the sweet taste.

You can retry this experiment with different kinds of chocolate and see how this perception changes.

Dr. Charles Spence – a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University- tried, among other things, to demonstrate the connection between food and sound. Spence states that our sense of taste is closely linked to our sense of smell, and he proposes that sound may also play a role in the way we perceive flavours.

When we taste food, our brain processes signals from our taste buds as well as our sense of smell. This is why food can taste different when we have a cold or stuffy nose.

But what about sound? Sound waves are transmitted through the air and enter our ears, where they’re transformed into electrical signals that travel to the brain. These signals activate different regions of the brain, including the auditory cortex and the gustatory cortex, which is responsible for processing taste.

Extensive research* has already been done into the phenomenon that sound can influence the perception of taste and texture in food. Overall, the science behind sonic seasoning suggests that sound can play a role in shaping our perception of taste and texture in food.

By understanding how different frequencies and tones can influence our taste buds and brain, we can use sound to create unique culinary experiences and enhance the enjoyment of our favourite foods.

Sonic seasoning has potential applications in the food and beverage industry, particularly in the realm of ‘multi-sensory’ or ‘multi-sensory’ marketing. This approach aims to create a more immersive and memorable experience for the consumer, by engaging multiple senses such as taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch. For example, a restaurant might use ambient music, lighting, and aromas to enhance the taste and enjoyment of their dishes. It’s like “hitting all the right notes” in your taste buds.

Are you intrigued and eager to fully explore this Chocolate-sonic seasoning experiment? Then we have news that might sound sweet to you…

We are taking this opportunity to organise an online expert tasting. For this occasion, we have created three different bars; milk, dark milk and dark – using our specialty cacao Thailand Chanthaburi. Three bars from the same origin, but with different recipes, so you can fully experience this sonic seasoning experiment and see for yourself how different flavours are affected by different sounds.

FIRST COME, FIRST JOIN !
We are planning this SONIC SEASONING EXPERIMENT / THAI CHOCOLATE TASTING on June 22, 2023 at 7pm. It will take about an hour.
Those who register will receive our ‘sonic seasoning set’ for free!

We would love you to join us. We are not only curious about your opinion, we are very interested in your previous experiences and look forward to sharing some mutual ‘Aha Erlebnisse’

FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T JOIN US ON JUNE 22ND, DON’T WORRY !
We have a little sweet bonus…

With every sample you request in the period from May 12 to June 30, 2023 you will also receive these exclusive Thai Sonic Seasoning Chocolate Bars as a bonus, completely free of charge. So why wait?