Key takeaways:
- High pitches can make foods taste sweeter, while low tones can bring out bitterness or saltiness.
- Studies show music and noise influence how we judge chocolate’s creaminess, wine’s body or a chip’s freshness.
- For bakery, snack and confectionery brands, sound is emerging as a new tool to enhance flavor perception.
A square of chocolate melts on your tongue in about 78 seconds. Long enough for the cocoa butter to coat your palate; long enough for sugar crystals to dissolve; and – according to new research – just long enough for a carefully composed piano melody to trick your brain into tasting more sweetness than is really there.
That’s the idea behind Sweetest Melody, a 90-second track released by Dr Natalie Hyacinth, a composer and sensory researcher at the University of Bristol. Commissioned by Galaxy Chocolate, the piece runs at 78 beats per minute – perfectly in sync with the melt time of its bars – and layers piano for sweetness, harp for silkiness and strings for richness. It’s streaming on YouTube and Spotify, so anyone can test the pairing during their next snack break.
Dr Hyacinth’s project isn’t just clever marketing. Hyacinth’s project isn’t just clever marketing. It’s built on decades of sensory science, including studies showing that high-pitched tones can boost perceived sweetness in food, that smooth, positive music enhances chocolate’s texture and intensity and that even the crunch of a potato chip sounds fresher when amplified through headphones. Other research shows how ambient noise can dampen sweetness or how wine tastes change dramatically depending on the soundtrack.
How sound alters flavor
The evidence for sonic seasoning is striking. High-pitched, tinkly sounds are consistently matched with sweetness, while low, brassy notes suggest bitterness or saltiness.
In one Oxford University experiment, participants sampled identical toffee candies but rated them sweeter when paired with high-pitch soundtracks and more bitter when listening to low-brass scores.
Chocolate has been a popular testing ground. A 2020 study in the journal Foods, involving more than 1,600 participants, found that chocolate paired with smooth, positive music was perceived as softer and more intense. Researchers concluded that both crossmodal mapping (sweet equaling high pitch) and the emotional tone of music influenced the tasting experience.
Texture isn’t immune either. One classic experiment showed that amplifying the crunch of potato chips through headphones made them taste fresher and crisper, even though they were identical. Conversely, broadband noise – like the constant roar of an airplane cabin – dulled perceptions of sweetness and saltiness while amplifying crunch, which may explain why inflight meals often seem so flat.
Taken together, the research underscores that our brains don’t process taste in isolation. What we hear shapes what we eat, often in ways we don’t consciously notice.
Chocolate scored in sound
Dr Hyacinth’s composition translates these findings into music. The track’s tempo of 78 BPM is slow enough to encourage savoring, while aligning with both chocolate’s melt time and a relaxed heartbeat. Piano provides the bright, high tones that boost sweetness; harp and strings weave in smooth, legato phrases associated with creaminess. Crucially, everything is written in a major key, avoiding the dissonance that studies have linked to bitterness.
“This initiative shows how enjoying chocolate can be a multisensory experience that goes beyond taste to engage all senses,” Dr Hyacinth explained when the track was released. “The power of music to enhance our enjoyment of chocolate is a thrilling prospect.”
While the track itself hasn’t been published in a scientific journal, it’s clearly grounded in peer-reviewed findings. In fact, it closely mirrors the 2020 chocolate study, serving as a real-world demo of sonic seasoning principles for a mainstream audience.
Wine, coffee and chips
Chocolate may be the tastiest example, but it’s far from the only one. Wine studies have shown that background music radically alters descriptors. When Carl Orff’s dramatic Carmina Burana played, tasters called Cabernet Sauvignon ‘powerful and heavy’. Swap in a soft ambient soundtrack and the same wine was described as ‘mellow and soft’. Similar experiments with coffee and beer suggest music can shift perceptions of acidity, astringency and even aftertaste.
Restaurants have applied these ideas for years, whether or not they use the term ‘sonic seasoning’. Slow background music keeps diners lingering and ordering more, while louder tracks speed up drinking. Even a humble snack can be transformed. The 2004 ‘crisps experiment’ – where boosting crunch sounds made chips taste fresher – remains a textbook case of how sound directly influences food quality judgments.
All of this points to a simple but powerful truth: soundscape is acting as an invisible ingredient in every bite you take.
Emotion, expectation and effect size
Researchers still debate whether these effects stem from innate sound-taste mappings or from emotional transfer. High pitches may cue sweetness, but simply being in a good mood can also make food taste better. The consensus is that both mechanisms matter, with emotional tone often playing the larger role in natural settings.
It’s important to recognize the effects are modest.
No piece of music will transform a bitter 85% cacao bar into milk chocolate. Timing is also key – the strongest effects occur when music and eating coincide, not when one happens in advance.
Expectations play a role as well. If tasters are told a track will make chocolate taste sweeter, many will report it sweeter.
The best-designed studies avoid this bias by randomizing participants across soundtracks without revealing the hypothesis.
Still, even subtle effects can elevate everyday moments. A slight lift in sweetness or creaminess is enough to make indulgence feel more immersive, which is exactly what Sweetest Melody aims to deliver.
A symphony for ‘me time’
Galaxy framed the project as more than a flavor experiment – it was also about self-care.
A poll of 2,000 UK adults found that 37% use a sweet treat for ‘me time’ and 56% listen to music to relax. By combining the two, the brand pitched Sweetest Melody as a way to reclaim a few indulgent minutes a day.
“By inviting the public to explore how music can refine their chocolate experience, we’re not only offering a delicious treat, but a symphony for the senses,” said Romi Mackiewicz, Galaxy’s brand director.
Marketing spin aside, the track captures a bigger truth: taste is never just taste. It’s filtered through mood, memory and environment, including whatever soundtrack happens to be playing. Music isn’t just background noise. It’s an ingredient, an auditory seasoning that can sweeten, soften or sharpen flavor as surely as sugar or salt.
So, next time you unwrap a bar of chocolate, don’t just think about calories or cocoa percentage. Think about your playlist. Because if the science holds true, what you hear might be the secret to making dessert taste just that little bit sweeter.
Try it at home
Break a bar of chocolate into equal squares. With headphones, eat one piece while listening to Sweetest Melody or another high-pitched, major-key track at a slow tempo.
Then try another piece while listening to a low-brass, minor-key track with sharp articulation.
Compare sweetness, bitterness and creaminess. Most tasters notice subtle but consistent differences, showing how music can act as a hidden seasoning.
Designing flavor with sound
Sonic seasoning opens up a new way of thinking about indulgence. If certain kinds of music can nudge sweetness, creaminess or freshness, sound becomes another tool alongside ingredients, packaging and branding. It doesn’t replace recipes, but it shows how carefully chosen audio can elevate them.
That creates space for innovation. A café playlist could be curated to make pastries taste richer, while the crackle of chip packaging could be tuned to emphasize crispness. Branded soundtracks – in the vein of Galaxy’s Sweetest Melody – might even become part of product launches, weaving sound into the customer’s sensory journey.
In the bakery, snacks and confectionery categories where consumers increasingly seek experiences as well as products, sound offers an invisible but powerful edge. It won’t turn a lackluster cookie into a masterpiece, but it can tilt perception just enough to encourage repeat enjoyment – and in a crowded market, that could be the difference between a one-off treat and a lasting favorite.
Studies:
Mueller Loose S, Szolnoki G.Market price differentials for food packaging characteristics. Food Quality and Preference. 2012; 25(2), 171-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.02.009.
Li Y, Zheng Z, Zhu S, Ramaswamy HS, Yu Y. Effect of Low-Temperature-High-Pressure Treatment on the Reduction of Escherichia coli in Milk. Foods. 2020; 9(12):1742. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9121742
Zampini M, Spence C. The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips. Journal of Sensory Studies. 2005; 19(5): 347-363. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-459x.2004.080403
Yan KS, Dando R. A crossodel role for audition in taste perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 2015; 41(3): 590-596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000044
North AC. The effect of background music on the taste of wine. British Journal of Psychology. 2011; 103(3): 293-301. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02072
