Color Influences Flavor Identification in Fruit‐flavored Beverages

TLDR

The study examined how beverage color affects flavor identification by having 310 untrained participants judge the flavor of one of eight artificially flavored drinks. Participants evaluated raspberry and orange drinks that were either uncolored or colored red, orange, or green, with each subject tasting a single beverage. Color significantly altered flavor identification, with correct recognition above chance for all color–flavor pairs, degraded performance for uncolored drinks, improved accuracy for matching colors, and greater misidentification of raspberry when colors were mismatched.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The influence of color on flavor was investigated using 310 untrained volunteers who each judged the flavor of 1 of 8 beverages. Artificially flavored raspberry and orange beverages were either left uncolored, or colored red, orange, or green. Color had a significant influence on the identification of both flavors, although every combination of color and flavor was identified correctly beyond the level expected by chance. Performance was degraded equally when beverages were uncolored, and facilitated equally when beverages were appropriately colored. Unusual color‐flavor combinations reduced the identification of raspberry flavor more than that of orange flavor. The influence of color was particularly salient because tasters were aware that the color of the beverage might be inappropriate to its flavor.