Taste the Rainbow

As a last minute taste testing event, I wanted to experiment with the idea of color affecting perception of flavor. This idea came to me when I offered popcicles without knowing what type they were, but simply described them as "white probably vanilla, red probably cherry, yellow either banana or pineapple".






 I made four types of flavored water: salty, sweetened with artificial sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. For each type, I made four cups (one each of green, blue, yellow, and red). When I gave each of my four participants cups, they got one of all of the colors and each with a different flavor. I asked them to taste the water by color ("Everyone drink the green and tell me what you taste") but this means that each round every participant had a different flavor to drink.






The results pretty much showed us that color had no affect on their ability to taste sweet, salty, sour, and vanilla. At no point did someone guess their beverage was a fruit related to the color. This could have been done many other ways, however, and I'd like to try variations.