Chapter five goes in depth in explaining how humans use their sense of taste. Not only do flavors allow us to taste things, but all of our other senses allow us to get the taste of something because they add to the experience of eating it. Specifically, a section of this chapter discusses that we can taste what we touch. I instantly found interest in this part because I am a very picky eater, most often because of the texture of whatever is going in my mouth. Most people I know say that they can't eat something if it looks gross, which is partially true for me. However, the perception I have of eating something that doesn't feel good in my mouth, completely ruins a meal for me. It's true that a reheated item may not taste as good the next time around, or it could be vice versa, but usually, its because its lost it's freshness, and reheating something either makes it too soft or too hard, the opposite of how it should be prepared and eaten in the first place. The article I have attached discusses a candy bar that people started complaining about having a different taste. This Dove candy had the exact same recipe as it always did, so the distributors couldn't understand why there was such a fuss all of a sudden. Apparently this chocolate was now too sweet, despite the fact that nothing changed... except the shape of the bar itself. They began distributing them in a more round shape, which turned out to affect the chocolates sweetness. The round texture of this chocolate made people taste it in a different way, which was most often too sweet for those who were eating it.
Please see the link below for the article itself.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science/Taste-beyond-flavour-How-colour-texture-and-environment-influence-taste-perception
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Very interesting post and article about the chocolate bar. I do think that what we see is how we taste something after reading chapter 5. I work in a restaurant and people have told me something has tasted gross because it didn't look like the picture. People expect something out of a picture and as far as the chocolate bar the shape made the candy taste different. I think we do taste with our eyes because chapter 5 had the pitch black restaurant and people reported that the food was bland. This is very interesting because vision plays a major role as to how we taste our food.
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