Subtitle (567)
0:00- Thank you to AnyDesk for supporting PBS.
0:07You're hearing the crunch as
I eat these delicious chips.
0:11But here's what I'm hearing
0:12through my headphones when I take a bite.
0:15(gloppy liquid sloshing)
0:17This is the grossest
experience of my life.
0:20(gloppy liquid sloshing)
0:22Oh, that was the worst
chip I've ever eaten.
0:25Nothing was wrong with it
0:26except that I heard it make a gross sound
0:29and that totally messed up its flavor.
0:31But how can a sense like hearing
0:33mess with how we perceive flavor?
0:35Maybe you and I have been
thinking about flavor all wrong
0:38because it turns out it's way more complex
0:41than just how something tastes and smells.
0:43So what does flavor really mean?
0:45How many senses does it actually involve,
0:48and why is it so tied
0:50to things like memories from childhood?
0:53Today we're visiting a flavor
manufacturer to meet one
0:55of the world's top flavorists,
0:57and I'm gonna fool my brain into smelling
1:00and tasting things that aren't even there.
1:02This is the science of flavor.
1:05(light playful music)
1:10We're at a flavor
laboratory in Austin, Texas
1:13to ask, what is flavor anyway?
1:17I mean, there's smell, there's taste,
1:20like, there's crunchiness.
1:22It's like the feel of
things like your memory
1:24and like, I don't know.
1:25So this is like the pro sports
1:27of flavor right here.
- Yeah.
1:29- You're like in the NFL.
1:30- There's less of us than pilots.
1:32Let's test you and see
how good your nose is.
1:36We're gonna test some raw materials
1:38and they're for our
characterizes, for our flavors.
1:42We have different notes
that happen within a flavor,
1:46but these are the ones
1:47that are really going to
drive it home what it is.
1:49- So this is like the core fingerprints
1:51of the flavor.
- This is like-
1:53- Quintessential.
- Okay.
2:01- Okay.
- This tastes like,
2:02like baking almond extract.
2:04- This is actually kind of a trick
2:07because it can be used
in almonds and cherries.
2:10It's very, yeah-
- As soon as she said that,
2:12it's like maraschino cherries.
- I saw that mind explosion.
2:13It has like that artificial cherry notes.
2:16- Those red cherries that
go on top of ice cream.
2:18- Yeah, the maraschino cherries.
2:20How many people on Earth have
your flavor certification?
2:25- I am certified through the
Society of Flavor Chemists.
2:27There's about 500 of us.
2:29You have to not only gain
employment with a flavor house,
2:34but they have to have
a certified flavorist
2:36who agrees to train you.
2:38- You're just like studying
2:39flavors all the time.
- All the time
2:42- Just smelling everything
you can get your hands on.
2:45- So you're now like a walking, talking
2:48encyclopedia of flavor.
2:54Famous last words. Okay.
2:59This is very banana-y.
3:00I'm getting a lot of, this is a tropical,
3:03but I feel like there's a trick.
3:04It can't just be banana, right?
3:05- It is banana.
- It is just banana?
3:06- It is just banana.
- Okay.
3:07- And it's interesting
that you said tropical
3:10because it can go in tropical stuff too.
3:12It's not just bananas.
3:13- Even if it's not
literally banana-flavored.
3:15- It can be a secondary
player for something else
3:18and maybe not the primary.
3:20And so it's just
different amounts of paint
3:22that you're using for your picture.
3:24- Okay, we're moving to savory.
3:29Cooked vegetables, like soup base,
3:31like carrots and celery and stuff.
3:34- I get the pork in there
now that you say it.
3:36- It's a tonkatsu ramen.
3:37- How do you make something porky?
3:40What does porky even mean chemically?
3:42- There's more paints.
3:44And that's what this
particular flavorist did
3:46was build that realism that goes with it
3:50to give you that illusion
3:53that you're having tonkatsu ramen.
3:56(light playful music)
3:57- It's garlic, onion.
3:59It's like french onion soup.
4:03- If this doesn't work out, you know.
4:05- (laughs) And last one.
4:09- Ooh, roast beef.
- It is beef.
4:11- After experiencing some
truly mind-blowing flavors
4:15I have to ask Lauren,
what is a flavor anyway?
4:18- Basically, a flavor is
aroma materials in a solvent
4:22that imparts aroma in taste
with no nutritional value.
4:26- But a lot of emotional value.
4:30- When we taste something,
4:31we're experiencing the
molecules it's made of,
4:34those aroma materials.
4:37If the innate properties of molecules
4:39were all there was to a flavor,
4:41Lauren's job would be way easier.
4:43But these molecules have to be perceived
4:45by our weird, messy bodies.
4:49And that makes things
way more complicated.
4:51You might not expect it,
4:53but eating these chips
4:54is gonna activate nearly every
sensory system in my body.
4:58Let's start with taste perception,
also known as gustation.
5:06The little bumps on our
tongue called papillae,
5:08each contain a bunch of taste buds.
5:10Each taste bud is home to a
cluster of receptor cells,
5:13and each receptor cell
responds to a different taste.
5:16We have receptors for sweet,
salty, sour, bitter, umami,
5:21and possibly even fat as well.
5:23All these receptor types
5:24are found in taste buds
all over the tongue.
5:26They are not arranged in
distinct little regions
5:29like that ubiquitous
tongue taste map suggests.
5:33I repeat, this map is a
myth, it has been debunked.
5:37Experts are literally begging us
5:39to stop talking about
the tongue taste map.
5:41- Please stop talking
about the tongue taste map.
5:44- As I eat this chip,
5:45I'm tasting some saltiness,
savoriness, a little acidity.
5:49Each of those receptors in my
tongue is getting triggered
5:51by a different chemical
component in my food.
5:53The salt receptors are responding
to dissolved sodium ions,
5:56the umami receptors to an
amino acid called L-glutamate,
6:00and the sour receptors to
dissolved hydrogen ions,
6:03basically the pH of the chip.
6:05But just how good am I at
tasting stuff like chips?
6:09Well, there's actually a test for that.
6:10- This is our next test to
see if Joe's a super taster.
6:14- I really want to be a super taster.
6:16- You've been itching
to know your whole life
6:18if you're a super taster
and now is the moment.
6:20- I'm not gonna be
disappointed if I'm not, okay?
6:22The paper strip contains
a bitter tasting chemical,
6:25but different people have
more or fewer receptors
6:27in their tongue for that bitter chemical.
6:29The strength of my reaction will tell me
6:31if I'm a non-taster with no
receptors for that chemical,
6:34an average taster, or a super taster.
6:42- Is it super offensive?
6:45This is a great way to talk.
6:46- I would say you're a moderate taster.
6:47You can detect that it's there,
6:48but you're not pulling
it off of your tongue.
6:51- If you were a super taster,
it'd be like overpowering?
6:53- So whenever I think about tasting this,
6:55I get goosebumps because
I hate it so much.
6:59The fact that you can put
it back on your tongue
7:02So I'm not a super taster.
7:04- I don't think you're a super taster,
7:05but you can taste well.
7:07- Okay, but I'm not a non-taster.
7:09- You're not a non-taster.
7:10- Super tasters tongues
7:11also have denser taste
receptors than non-tasters.
7:14In fact, individual
variation in receptor density
7:17is way higher for taste
than for any other sense.
7:20These little bumps on our tongue
7:22have the power to make us
experience the exact same food
7:25completely differently
from another person.
7:28Does that mean that like
my nacho cheese chip
7:32is different from your nacho cheese chip?
7:34(train steam hissing)
7:35Now let's move on to smell perception,
7:37also known as olfaction.
7:39Now, who you think would
win in a flavor fight?
7:42Olfaction or gustation?
7:44Well, let's do a little experiment.
7:45I'm gonna try to tell the difference
7:47between foods with similar textures
7:49while blindfolded and holding my nose.
7:52My olfaction will be completely cut off,
7:54but my gustation will work just fine.
7:56Which one should I go for first?
7:59I think I'll do this one first.
8:02Literally just clunks, I have no taste.
8:10There's nothing else happening.
8:12Is this the third one?
8:16This is also just crunchy and sweet.
8:19'Cause they're just sweet and crunchy.
8:21I don't know what this was.
8:23This had no flavor at
all. (blows raspberry)
8:25These two, they're just sweet.
8:28I think this is apple and this is pear.
8:34This was apple? This was pear?
8:36I would totally have guessed otherwise.
8:41So that test shows us olfaction
8:42is the real hero of flavor perception.
8:45It's the dominant sense over gustation.
8:48So there are actually
two types of olfaction.
8:52and perceive that distinct cheesiness,
8:54that's orthonasal olfaction,
8:56the scent particles are
traveling up my nose.
8:59But if I eat this chip and
perceive its cheesiness,
9:02that's retronasal olfaction.
9:04The scent particles are traveling up
9:06the back of my throat into my nose.
9:08Retronasal olfaction is what's responsible
9:11for most of flavor perception.
9:13The destination of those scent particles
9:14is the olfactory epithelium,
9:16a patch of millions of
olfactory receptor neurons
9:20embedded in your nasal cavity.
9:22One end of those receptors
is exposed to air,
9:25no other neurons in our body do this.
9:28A scent molecule needs
to be the right shape
9:30to fit its corresponding receptor.
9:32But that means we need so
many different receptor types
9:35to smell all the smells out there.
9:37We actually have more genes
for olfactory receptors
9:39than any other type of gene in our genome.
9:42We have about 350 receptor
types that work in combination
9:46to allow us to detect
roughly 10,000 or so smells.
9:50But about 1/2 of our
olfactory receptor genes
9:53are no longer functional,
9:54meaning that our ancestors
9:56could likely discern a much
broader bouquet of scents.
9:59Kinda makes you wonder,
10:00what would Homo heidelbergensis
have thought about these?
10:04Probably would've loved them.
10:05Once our olfactory receptor neurons fire,
10:07they send signals to the
olfactory bulb of the brain,
10:10which is right about here-ish,
10:13which then transmits them directly
10:14to the olfactory cortex for processing,
10:16which is right about, you know what?
10:20Bring up the diagram.
10:21After the olfactory cortex,
10:22smell information goes to the amygdala,
10:24a key brain region for processing emotions
10:26and the hippocampus,
10:28which is critical for processing memories.
10:30This is a super different
signaling pathway
10:32than any of our other senses.
10:34Taste, vision, hearing, and touch signals,
10:37they all take completely different paths
10:38before heading to memory processing.
10:40Because flavor signals
pass through those emotion
10:43and memory centers of our brain
10:45is precisely why flavor
evokes such strong emotions
10:49and memories compared to other senses.
10:52Taste and smell are crucial
to flavor, obviously,
10:55but we can't ignore hearing,
10:57which until recently
was the forgotten sense
11:00These days, flavor scientists
have come up with an equation
11:03for the perfect bacon crunch in a BLT.
11:06They've defined the ideal frequency ranges
11:09for crispy and crunchy food noises.
11:11It's these, by the way.
11:13Scientists have even studied
11:14how sounds impact our
overall perception of flavor.
11:18Like what happens if you hear a squish
11:21while you're expecting a crunch.
11:22But hearings influence on flavor
11:24can be even more subtle than that.
11:26In one study, participants rated chips
11:28as being more stale if
a lower frequency crunch
11:32was played in their
headphones while they ate it.
11:34There are other flavor senses too.
11:37There's also somatosensory perception,
11:39which gives us a lot of information
11:41about what we're putting in our mouths.
11:43We're talking touch receptors
that detect texture,
11:46mouth feel, even fizziness.
11:48Thermoreceptors that let us know
11:50how hot or cold something is,
11:52and pain receptors that can
tell you how spicy a chip is.
11:56The somatosensory system interacts
11:58with our other senses to
impact how we perceive flavor.
12:02Sweet things feel more viscous.
12:04Warm food tastes more flavorful.
12:07Spiciness decreases our
sensitivity to other flavors.
12:11Finally, we also have
to talk about vision.
12:14It impacts our anticipation of food.
12:17And this is important
because that triggers
12:19our autonomic nervous system,
12:21which turns on our salivary
glands to get ready to eat,
12:25but it also impacts our
perception of flavor
12:28and scientists are having way too much fun
12:31They have served wrong-colored
foods at dinner parties
12:34and then watched all the
guests all start to feel ill,
12:37even though the food was totally fine.
12:39They trick sommeliers into
thinking white wines are reds
12:42just by adding food coloring
12:44and they mess with the lighting
to turn food weird colors.
12:50- And beyond our senses,
12:51I mean, things like language and culture
12:53can even influence flavor.
12:54If you tell someone a certain
smell is coming from cheese,
12:59they'll have a different reaction to it
13:00than if you say that smell
is coming from sweaty feet,
13:03even when it's the same smell
molecules coming from each.
13:07Studies of cultural impact
13:08on flavor perception are fascinating.
13:11In one example, American
study participants
13:13experience heightened almond olfaction
13:16when holding a sugar
solution in their mouth
13:19while Japanese participants
13:20experience heightened almond olfaction
13:22when holding an umami MSG
solution in their mouth.
13:25Researchers think it's because
13:27we have different cultural associations
13:29about whether something like almond
13:31should be sweet or savory.
13:32So yeah, master flavorists have
their work cut out for them.
13:37They have to juggle our senses,
13:39our very unpredictable interactions,
13:41and their cultural and linguistic contexts
13:45all to create a delicious
perception in our brain.
13:49Let's see how this all
comes together in the lab.
13:52When you're actually making a flavor,
13:55what does it mean to make
a well-balanced flavor
13:58that's a good experience for somebody?
14:00- A well-balanced flavor
has to have a front,
14:03a middle, and an end.
14:04It's a story that has a great beginning,
14:07gets your attention, has
really great middle notes,
14:10and finishes off with
like a bang basically.
14:12And that's what we're gonna do here.
14:13- So these are like the
individual components.
14:17And then at the end of this,
14:18you can tell me what you
think the flavor we built is.
14:21Okay, so this is the first one.
14:25- Yeah, it's like a sharp, like
it's a chemical fruitiness.
14:28- Different chemical classes
have different weights,
14:33that allow it to come
across in different times.
14:36So an ester is gonna
come in the beginning.
14:42- It is, is earthier.
14:44Yeah, it's like lower.
14:45It's like a base note.
14:47- A lactone usually is creamy, fruity.
14:50- Creamy, I get that, yeah.
14:52And then those two together,
14:53that's yeah, you can tell, like, one,
14:54yeah, it's hitting in
different parts of my skull.
14:57Okay, hit me with the next one.
14:59- This is an alcohol.
15:01So this is gonna be one
of our front guys as well.
15:04- Oh yeah, very alcoholic.
15:07It's not quite what mowing
the lawn smells like,
15:09but it's definitely that like wet,
15:11like, crushed up like
leaves grassy kind of thing.
15:14- So the green will add
some unripened notes.
15:17- Unripened, I like that.
15:18I'm glad you're here
to give the good words.
15:21- No, you're doing a really great job.
15:22Okay, so this one is a ketone.
15:25- Ooh, I'm getting candy.
- And it gives
15:27like a perception of cooked.
- It's like cooked sugar.
15:29- Yeah, it's perfect.
15:31Obviously we're making a fruit, right?
15:32It's telling you, okay,
you have those unripe notes
15:36because fruits can be unripe
15:37and you have a little
bit of those cooked notes
15:39because as they age,
they do create sugars.
15:42- The weirdest game of carbs
I've ever played right here.
15:44- [Lauren] So this is another ketone.
15:46This is actually one of my favorites.
15:48- This one's very sharp, like pointy.
15:50- [Lauren] It's seedy.
15:51- It's like those strawberries
15:52you get in the pack that
are not quite ready to eat.
15:54- Yes, so put that with
your group and smell that.
15:58how it's getting more-
- Wow!
16:00as it's going?
- Yes!
16:01And we're not even done yet.
16:02- You can feel them, like.
16:04- [Lauren] But they're
all working together.
16:05They're basically singing
kumbaya right now.
16:08We have a great choir coming in, okay.
16:09- [Lauren] Okay, so sniff
lightly, this is an acid,
16:12so it's another one of our front guys.
16:15Yeah, that's a little,
that's a little funky.
16:18cheesy, like, there's
some aging going on here.
16:20Like, if I was in fruitville,
16:22I'd be like, this is not,
that one's going back.
16:24- [Lauren] On its own, yes.
16:25- I mean, it's weird, once you
put it with the other ones,
16:27yeah, it like fills out this flavor-
16:29- And it brightens it, it lifts it.
16:32- And now that strawberry just
became like somehow riper.
16:35- Yes.
- Like fuller in this.
16:39- What the heck is going on?
16:42- [Lauren] Okay, last one.
16:45What does it smell like?
16:46- Rotting is what it smells like.
16:47It just smells like-
16:48- It smells like canned corn.
16:50- Oh my God, it does.
16:52I get these all together.
16:55(light tropical music)
16:58I'm holding a strawberry,
16:59like, every piece of the strawberry.
17:01You don't wanna get any
one of them too strong.
17:03There's like ripeness
17:05and like almost like fermented
17:07like vinegary notes in there.
17:08It's like the whole life
of a fruit going on here.
17:11- And the leafy green.
- Yeah.
17:13- The juiciness of it.
17:15- All right, new YouTube
feature needed: Smell o vision.
17:20- You're like Willy Wonka.
17:22- Oh, thank you.
- Yeah, this is amazing.
17:24This has just been such a
mind-blowing experience.
17:26You can tell my brain's kind of melting.
17:27- You're in the matrix right now. (laughs)
17:30You are tasting these flavors,
17:33even if it's not that actual strawberry,
17:36it is the flavor of a strawberry
17:38and the way that your mind connects it
17:40to make it real to you.
17:42It's important to know
17:43that it is a valid thing to be tasting.
17:46And even though it is
concocted by, you know,
17:49flavors and everything,
17:51it is what a strawberry
would be in nature,
17:55just not from the direct strawberry.
17:57- The brain doesn't lie, people,
17:59if it thinks strawberry,
then it's strawberry.
18:03Not only are you creating
a flavor that tastes good,
18:06but you're also evoking
a memory for somebody.
18:09- Because there's so many other things
18:10that go into that experience, right?
18:12We've all had like a meal
that just tastes so perfect
18:15because of like the people you're with.
18:17Or where you are.
- Yes.
18:18It could could have been
your grandmother's last time
18:20to create a lasagna for you.
18:22Or ice cream cone that, you know,
18:25you and your best friend
had whenever you were five.
18:27People are tasting it, they're seeing it.
18:31They can pick up like those
notes that we talked about,
18:34but then it triggers something
18:35and it makes it even more special to them
18:38that they're having that
with the flavor itself.
18:41If I can bottle one feeling,
18:45probably just happiness
18:46because the flavor should
make you feel happy
18:48whenever you're enjoying it.
18:50We try to make the world taste better.
18:52- I thought consulting a flavorist
18:54might reveal some singular truth
18:57about the definition of flavor,
18:59but instead I'm kind of wondering
19:01whether flavor's even real.
19:03I mean, even experts don't
agree on exactly what it is,
19:07but it's as clear as the
crunchiness of a delicious chip
19:11that the way we perceive flavor
19:14is a symphony of many senses,
19:17way beyond just taste and smell
19:19carefully orchestrated by our brain
19:22and even etched into our memories.
19:24It's a deliciously complicated lens
19:26through which we experience the world.
19:28And now I can eat chips again
19:31without it being a science experiment.
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20:53- We need more shoots with food.
20:55This is good. It's snack time.
20:58Hey, welcome to Joe Reviews Chips.
21:01- [Speaker] Keep the teleprompter still.
