Tuning the taste: How acoustic environments and cultural differences moderate the taste and mouthfeel of orange juice

The setting characteristics of the everyday environment where we consume foods and beverages substantially impact our taste perception. Previous research demonstrated that altering external sensory stimuli of the environment is a potential strategy for modulating taste perception. On the other side, people consume foods and beverages during everyday life in different sound environments. Interestingly, taste and smell preferences differ across cultures. This gap is particularly evident in sound and aroma–taste association studies, where non-Western participants are underrepresented despite their unique sensory experiences. This study explores the intricate relationship between sound environments, orange juice flavour perception, and cross-cultural influences. Western (Italian) and non-Western (Indonesian) participants listened to seven distinct everyday sound environments: a hotel breakfast room, a café, a bar, a food court, a vending machine area, a park and an urban square. They evaluated the aroma, sweetness, sourness, bitterness, freshness, thickness and overall taste of orange juice, along with the valence elicited by the auditory surroundings. The main results revealed that different sound environments moderate the sweetness, sourness and bitterness of the juice and the mouthfeel responses according to their acoustics character. The novelty of this research lies in its examination of how psychoacoustic metrics influence taste and mouthfeel perception. Specifically, increased Roughness in sound environments was found to diminish perceived sweetness, whereas higher Sharpness levels reduced the sensation of thickness. Moreover, the cultural factor also moderated the ratings of food aroma and taste of different sound environments.