mouthfeel

michaelt42 The following comment on a French red wine describes it as full-bodied, which is clearly a perception derived from the mouthfeel. "Although the alcohol % is only 13.5 I would normally describe this Madiran as full-bodied, more to do with the tannat grape than the strength of the wine.It is a hearty red & quite rich in flavour.Personally I would give the 2004 another 2 years to soften the tannins more. Dec 6, 2011

hernesheir The mouthfeel and sound of Jordan almonds breaking that molar one had filled as a child is quite unforgetable. The crunching and breaking sounds resonate through the jaw and into the inner ear, using the brain pan as a sounding board. Nov 30, 2011

yarb Very interesting comment, especially that last sentence. You're dead right that the crunchiness of toast - including the sound of the crunch - is an integral part of the experience of eating it. The same applies to the crunching, cracking sound of biting into an apple. This is amplified when you listen to a horse, with its outsized chompers, eating an apple - the whole thing pretty much explodes at once. Nov 30, 2011

michaelt42 During the 1970s I was the editor of a trade journal published in London, entitled 'The Flavour Industry', which later vaingloriously advanced itself to 'International Flavours and Food Additives', although its implicit claim to have moved outside the boundaries of the UK was, to say the least, spurious. The relation of mouthfeel to impressions of dryness, graininess, mouthcoating and viscosity sums up the range of perceptions pretty well. However we need to distinguish between the mouthfeel of liquids and of semisolids,which is immediately perceptible (Coke and champagne, Pepsi and Perrier, and clear soup and custard offer interesting comparisons and contrasts) and of solid foods like meat, fruit and bread, which must be mixed with saliva and chewed to give a changing mouthfeel to the food being chewed until it reaches a consistency that is felt to be suitable for swallowing. A whole range of mouthfeel sensations is found in the practice of diagnostic wine tasting, where dryness means lack of sugar, puckering is the reaction of the mouth to excessive acidity and tannin, and mouthcoating and viscosity must be translated, in the tasting of wine to be laid down or further matured, into estimates of acidity, sugar levels, tannin, and “body”, and potential for improving with age. MSG is an example of a food additive that improves mouthfeel as well as being a flavour enhancer. We must not forget too the importance of ones ears as well as the impact between ones teeth and the food in the crunching of nuts, celery, crisp biscuits, crackers, cornflakes - and toast! Nov 30, 2011

Lee.courtney990@gmail.com what the heck is this word Nov 30, 2011