British Airways Has a Playlist That It Hopes Will Make Its Food Taste Better

After figuring out how to best put us to sleep, British Airways has put science to work on improving the in-flight experience once again--this time targeting our taste buds. Research by Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, demonstrated that it is possible to trick the taste buds with a tune. By identifying music that appeals in just the right way to the brain, the palate can be fooled into finding flavors more flavorful, without having to pile-on exotic ingredients, such as salt and sugar. This is the new science of Sonic Seasoning, which British Airways has employed to improve in-flight Dinning at 35,000ft. Professor Spence carried out his first experiments on the relationship between sound and taste at Heston Blumenthal’s award-winning Fat Duck restaurant. He used a single trombone note for bitter, mixed with the rumble of car traffic through a tunnel, as you do, and the reverb of a grand piano for sweetn