This article first appeared in (the now closed) Bitten Magazine in July 2016
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We photograph our food – both our creations and those set on the plate in front of us while dining out. In the case of bloggers and food stylists (yes that is now a career option) the surrounds are just as important – time is spent setting the scene, the table and the background. It’s become an all encompassing part of our dining experience.
And I bet (actually no, don’t take that bet, I’ll win easily) that you could give me an example of the best drink that you’ve had, or a meal, or a simple plate of food, that had you enthralled. Not only could you describe the dish to me, but the place, the venue, the weather, descriptors even down to the condensation on your glass, or how attractive the waiter was.
Everything feeds into your dining experience, in fact every element of your surroundings feed into how you taste. Your venue, your food, how it looks – but how much attention do you pay aurally? Do you even think about it? Music forms an enormous part of our lives, from the tuneless musac in the lift, to the live music at a gig, to the theme song to your favourite TV programme.
So have you ever thought how music affects your food?
No? You might not have but the hospitality industry has. And the research into it is fascinating.
Music affects how fast you eat
Various studies – both those in laboratories, and those out in the field, or in this case in the restaurant, have shown that how loud music is affects how fast you consume you food/drinks and how long you stay in a venue.
One study not only took two bars, but different areas – one rural, and one urban – and altered the volume between normal (72-75 decibels) and loud (88-91 decibels). In both venues there was a marked change – drinks were bought and consumed faster during louder music. Though interestingly the number of gulps it took to drink remained the same.
It affects how fast you eat too, the number of bites consumed per minute increases with faster music.
The above is something that Hard Rock Cafe is said to use with aplomb – keeping your visit short means a high turnover of tables. The theory behind this behaviour is that you have less opportunity to interact with your dining or drinking companion, so seek to go elsewhere to chat.
But diners eating whilst listening to classical music not only eat less, but also appear to enjoy their dinner more than those listening to more intense music.
Reports in another piece of research – examining music used in Glasgow pubs – maintained that management would use ‘mind numbing, boring music’ to get rid of unwanted visitors, i.e. stag parties when it was a primarily family oriented space – so it can be used as pest control too.
Music affects taste
In one experiment quiet and loud white noise was played whilst people tried salty, sweet and crunchy foods. The louder the white noise, the less salty or sweet the food, and vice versa.
The more audible the crunch, the crispier the food was perceived to be.
Listening to ‘sweet’ music, makes something taste sweeter, and ‘bitter’ music makes it taste bitter – in both cases, a piece of cinder toffee.
Oh and bacon tastes more bacony when you can hear bacon.
… So you can match your drink to music
One of the most famous experiments involved playing music to participants while they were drinking wine. One red wine, one white. They were then asked to assess the wine. The red wine was perceived to be more ‘powerful and heavy’ when drunk listening to ‘powerful and heavy’ music (Carl Orff), and the white perceived to be more light and zingy when drunk whilst listening to ‘light and zingy’ music (Nouvelle Vague).
And beer blogger Pete Brown has run more than one workshop matching beer to music. Just for fun.
It even affects what we choose to buy
Experiments in a wine cellar showed that participants bought more expensive wines, and spent more when the background music played was classical, and we are suggestible to buying more French wines when played French music, and more German wines when played German music.
And it’s not just the music
This has been shown during a variety of experiments – one rather famous one involved Singleton Whisky and a series of sensory rooms, where participants were asked to rate the flavour of the whisky after spending time in each room: sweet, woody and grassy. Each room not only contained sound said to mimic each theme, but also the physical surrounds – sweet featured red coloured balls (round physical objects are said to be ‘sweet’), whilst the woody room featured wooden panels, clocks and a woodwind instrument providing the aural background.
The earlier music and wine experiment was expanded to cover the glass colour, and lighting. The conclusion reached was that the environment has an incredible effect on what we eat and drink, and our perception of it – wine is perceived as fresher and less intense under green lighting and sour music, and liked more while listening to sweet music.
So next time you find yourself shouting yourself hoarse over your dinner date, or lingering over a glass of wine, how much your surrounds have influenced your choices.
We’re just so suggestible.