I have just read a very interesting article about the importance of colour in food production. For example, the hue of orange juice is carefully measured, and in the United States there is even a juice colour standard for producers (or should that be color?). In terms of colour standards it would appear that fruit and vegetables are at the top of our list, and I’m sure that it’s true to say that our purchasing choices are often dictated by what we see – those bright red strawberries, vibrant orange carrots or perhaps that head of vivid green broccoli. If the colours were slightly washed out, or perhaps even completely wrong, would we then still buy the goods? For instance, I think I am correct in saying that when carrots were first introduced they were not orange, but white, and that they still exist in colours such as red, purple or yellow. But would we buy a yellow carrot? I’m not so sure. Now, this fact leads me fact leads me quite neatly to the real point of my post….. Does the colour change your perception of taste?

Tests carried out seem to suggest that it does. It appears that a type of ‘taste expectation’ from what we see, can actually determine what we perceive in our mouth. For example, in a taste test, when a lime-flavored drink was coloured orange, nearly half of participants thought it was flavoured orange, and when blindfold, hardly any identified the taste at all! But then it appears that colour can actually play an even bigger role when we change either the presentation or even the receptacle used. Respondents said that strawberry mousse tasted better from a white round plate than it did from a black square one, and that coffee in a white mug tasted less sweet than in a transparent or blue mug! The hypothesis goes further, whereby even the strength or hue of lighting can have an influence on taste…..

So how does this concept extend to wine? If you add red colouring to a white wine, will it taste different? Or if you can’t see it at all, will you even be able to determine if it’s red or white? I would certainly like to think that I could tell, but I’m sure that there still exists an opportunity for confusion. We certainly have a tendency to prejudge a wine by what we see. When seeing a white wine with a very deep colour or orange hue, we might immediately start to imagine that it could be either sweet, or perhaps oxidised, even before we have got it anywhere near our nose or mouth. Colouring our taste expectation you might call it.

Of course we would normally drink wine from a white clear glass, as the first, visual phase of the tasting process is extremely important, but imagine if the wine glass was opaque, or perhaps even coloured, how much would that influence what you taste? Certainly food (or wine) for thought.I have just read a very interesting article about the importance of colour in food production. For example, the hue of orange juice is carefully measured, and in the United States there is even a juice colour standard for producers (or should that be color?). In terms of colour standards it would appear that fruit and vegetables are at the top of our list, and I’m sure that it’s true to say that our purchasing choices are often dictated by what we see – those bright red strawberries, vibrant orange carrots or perhaps that head of vivid green broccoli. If the colours were slightly washed out, or perhaps even completely wrong, would we then still buy the goods? For instance, I think I am correct in saying that when carrots were first introduced they were not orange, but white, and that they still exist in colours such as red, purple or yellow. But would we buy a yellow carrot? I’m not so sure. Now, this fact leads me fact leads me quite neatly to the real point of my post….. Does the colour change your perception of taste?

Tests carried out seem to suggest that it does. It appears that a type of ‘taste expectation’ from what we see, can actually determine what we perceive in our mouth. For example, in a taste test, when a lime-flavored drink was coloured orange, nearly half of participants thought it was flavoured orange, and when blindfold, hardly any identified the taste at all! But then it appears that colour can actually play an even bigger role when we change either the presentation or even the receptacle used. Respondents said that strawberry mousse tasted better from a white round plate than it did from a black square one, and that coffee in a white mug tasted less sweet than in a transparent or blue mug! The hypothesis goes further, whereby even the strength or hue of lighting can have an influence on taste…..

So how does this concept extend to wine? If you add red colouring to a white wine, will it taste different? Or if you can’t see it at all, will you even be able to determine if it’s red or white? I would certainly like to think that I could tell, but I’m sure that there still exists an opportunity for confusion. We certainly have a tendency to prejudge a wine by what we see. When seeing a white wine with a very deep colour or orange hue, we might immediately start to imagine that it could be either sweet, or perhaps oxidised, even before we have got it anywhere near our nose or mouth. Colouring our taste expectation you might call it.

Of course we would normally drink wine from a white clear glass, as the first, visual phase of the tasting process is extremely important, but imagine if the wine glass was opaque, or perhaps even coloured, how much would that influence what you taste? Certainly food (or wine) for thought.