To test the importance of olfaction in gustation, I conducted a small experiment consisting of 8 of my closest friends involving nose plugs, skittles, and perception. We purchased an extra large bag of skittles and conducted an experiment involving delicious grape and nasty lemon (note: we came up with these names ourselves). By plugging our noses, our sense of taste was diminished because we were unable to use olfaction to enhance gustation. We conducted a blind test where we tasted at random the lemon (read: disgusting) and grape (scrumptious) skittles and guessed their flavors. Of the 8 lucky skittle eaters, only two scored above 50% in correctly identifying the flavor; a surprise to me, since I imagined anybody with papillae would be able to correctly identify the nauseating taste of a lemon skittle. This alone provided enough proof for me to believe the importance of smell when it comes to enhancing gustation (and proof that lemon skittles also have a disgusting smell). I thoroughly enjoyed the tests since we were able to finish a considerably large bag of skittles; though this isn’t necessarily something to take pride in as that is extremely unhealthy (I prefer starbursts anyway, even the lemon ones).

On the subject of unhealthy foods, I always wondered why these were the foods that had some of the best flavors. It turns out that fat actually has a flavor associated with it (this isn’t good for me), meaning that those fat free foods that people ‘claim’ don’t taste the same, really don’t.