When it comes to alcoholic drinks, it’s a question of taste: some people have a preference for sweet notes; others prefer more bitter beverages. While sensitivity to different flavours varies from person to person, it would seem that music may also influence our perception of how alcohol tastes.
At least, this is according to several scientific studies, whose authors report that alcohol tastes different in different musical environments because human brains associate certain frequency ranges, tempos, harmonies and timbres with different taste attributes.
A European research team found evidence of this in 2016 after conducting an experiment with 231 beer lovers. They found that volunteers who drank their beer with music in the background tended to enjoy their beverage more than those who sipped it in silence.
Even more interestingly, their perception of flavours changed according to the soundscape in which they were immersed. For Felipe Reinoso Carvalho, assistant professor at the Universidad de los Andes and co-author of the research, this is because music brings out the beer’s different facets.
“Mid- to high-frequency ranges with steady musical tempos and clean, consistent, major harmonies – together with happy feelings being brought by music – typically make the brain feel beer is sweeter,” he explained. “But enjoying the same beer while listening to a sad song, with lower frequency ranges and intense, complex compositions, can make it taste bitter. And sourness is associated with high-pitched, random sounds, like drum cymbals.”
In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon is known as the priming effect: music acts as a primer that directs our attention to “congruent” information – that is, information that complements the primer to form a coherent whole. For example, a song with a slow tempo elicits a low level of physiological activation (minimal stimulation, slow heartbeat, low adrenal secretion), which favours the emergence of positive emotions.
The beer one enjoys in such an atmosphere could, therefore, seem that much lighter and sweeter without one even realising it.
The effect of music on the perceived taste of alcoholic drinks is, of course, not limited to beer: music can also modify how people think wine tastes according to the mood it conveys.
Adrian North, professor of psychology at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University, came to this conclusion after conducting an experiment during which participants were asked to taste a glass of white or red wine.
The tasting took place in one of five rooms – including a “control” room with no music – where four different musical atmospheres were played continuously: “powerful and heavy”, “subtle and refined”, “zingy and refreshing”, “mellow and soft”.
On average, 37.25% of the volunteers saw their perception of wine change according to the sound environment in which they found themselves. For example, when participants drank wine while listening to Michael Brook’s “Slow Breakdown”, the wine was perceived as “mellow and soft”.
Similarly, wine tasted in a “powerful and heavy” musical atmosphere seemed to have the same characteristics. Surprisingly, the effects of music on red wine were more pronounced than on white wine.
So, based on these findings, it might be a good idea to pick your playlist carefully when you sit down to enjoy a beer, a glass of wine, or a flute of champagne.