I am in love with coffee.
They say such a love for that bittersweet drink is overrated
and a little bit too chic. Who cares?! Though I am not that type who regularly
goes to Starbucks or even Coffee Bean for that matter (simply because I cannot
afford such a high maintenance lifestyle! Maybe when I have a stable job I’d
reconsider it. Haha!), homemade coffee is priceless. Brewed coffee
(specifically Batangas beans, love the strong taste!) on special occasions or
my default, everyday coffee, which is 3-in-1 Nescafe Brown & Creamy coffee
make my day. I can never, for the love of life, end a day without taking one or
two (though I used to drink more than three but then I needed to lessen it
because of my hyperacidity).
Coffee love issue aside, I am most fond of how illumination
can change my taste perception of coffee. Since the first semester is season of
wetness and rain downpours, I suddenly thought of buying high sodium bulbs
because in our house in our province is located near a farm. So there are
plenty of potential mosquitoes and gnats out there ready to bite us. I installed
one bulb in a lampshade and usually before I go to sleep I read books. I was
surprised to see that the highlights in my Sensation & Perception book
suddenly disappeared when I was reading using the illumination made by those
high sodium bulbs!
So I thought maybe what would be the perceived color of
coffee or even the cup of coffee itself under changing illuminations and what
effect would that have regarding taste.
Research has shown that hot chocolate tastes better in an
orange cup. This implies relatively important issues with regards as to how the
food should be presented or in itself, the importance of food presentation. In
their experiment, 57 participants were made to drink hot chocolate in four
different types of cups. All were plastic (which I became wary of because I’ve
recently read that plastic containers are not healthy when hot food were placed…
anyway, just a random thought) and of the same size but differed in colors
(i.e. white, cream, red, and orange) outside while all being white inside the
cup. After the experiment, the participants reported that the chocolate tasted
better in either cream-colored or orange-colored cups.
Well, though the study said that changes in the perception
of taste on the basis of visual stimuli does not have any physiological basis, I
still believe it is related with the concept of color constancy and changing
illumination. I think we think that changing colors under changing illumination
are so amazing because we think that color is constant. So when we see that a
color of a coffee cup, for example, changes, then we are so amazed at the
inconsistency it demonstrated. I think that’s the beauty of the concept of
color constancy. On the other hand, in relation to the color of the cup
influencing the taste perception, it may or may not be related to color
constancy and that with this I think the study needs a physiological explanation
for what has happened.
So how about in coffee shops, where
they have different illuminations? Or perhaps, how about me drinking coffee
either under a lampshade or under our well-lit living room? Honestly, I thought
that drinking coffee under a lampshade was way better but I really can’t say
because there are other extra factors like the factor of ambiance itself. I
personally like partially illuminated places or anything that’s relaxing so too
much light would be a no-no for me. On a different note, on the issue of cup
colors, I can also raise question whether illumination has an indirect effect
on taste perception through the change the illumination brought to the cup.
Anyhow, all has been said and done
and I better finish my coffee before it gets cold (well that’s another thing! The
effect of temperature on taste perception, though the topic is not related to
the coverage of topics! Hehe). Having said all these, I’d like to end this
essay with a little bit of a life inspiration:
References:
Boyle, R. (2013). Important Science of the Season: Hot Chocolate Tastes Better in an
Orange Cup. Popsci.com. Retrieved from http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/important-science-day-hot-chocolate-tastes-better-orange-cup
Goldstein, E.B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8th ed). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Photo Sources:
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/dreamstime_s_20419217.jpg
http://indulgy.net/HH/CD/UD/1975251336263993270kQ5Vssrc.jpg
Posted by: Kate Ilene Ang
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