# Colorless food flavorings, for student science fair project...



## Zwiefel (Nov 2, 2014)

A good friend's daughter is doing a science fair project to study the perception of color on flavor. She wants to have colorless liquid with various flavors and then colored liquids with flavors that do not match to see how people's perceptions change.

3-5 flavors. Fruits may be easiest due to the strong association of particular colors and flavors.

Any ideas?


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## Stumblinman (Nov 2, 2014)

Many extracts have only a little color and could easily have food coloring added to change it. Like making ice cream many times you need to add color. Hmmm now if she had an icecream stand for everyone to taste it might be a winner  
Look at coffee flavors too.


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## Von blewitt (Nov 2, 2014)

I can't think of any colourless flavours that will be strong enough and recognisable. what about using black cups for the first tasting to disguise the natural colouring, then clear cups for the mismatched colours?


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## EdipisReks (Nov 2, 2014)

Like stumblinman says, I think extracts are going to be the way to go. Mint extract with red food coloring, for instance.


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## Zwiefel (Nov 2, 2014)

Von blewitt said:


> I can't think of any colourless flavours that will be strong enough and recognisable. what about using black cups for the first tasting to disguise the natural colouring, then clear cups for the mismatched colours?



Very clever idea!


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## Stumblinman (Nov 2, 2014)

Ha found it LOL it's called a rotary evaporator.  Just saw it watching Spinning Plates. I know not feasible but coincidence. Figures I'd see something at Alinea.


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## ThEoRy (Nov 2, 2014)

Use citric acid with sugar and blue food coloring. Blemonaide.


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## ecchef (Nov 2, 2014)

Danny,
I'd be interested to see the results!


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## Lucretia (Nov 2, 2014)

Onion juice. Might be a little cloudy, tho.


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## scotchef38 (Nov 3, 2014)

Orange flower water and rose water are both colourless and she could also boil some water with cloves or similar and use that as a base


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## mr drinky (Nov 3, 2014)

Last year when I was in Paso wine country, I was at a wine tasting room and they had a room completely painted in black and they said that they had done tastings in the room in the dark and it was amazing how many people couldn't distinguish even white from red wines. And there is this common challenge on Top Chef when contestants were blind folded, and it was also surprising how many people could not identify common items like ketchup and mayo. I think getting away from the extracted liquid and going to some sort of blind tasting might increase the options.

k.


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## jklip13 (Nov 3, 2014)

If you have access to a centrifuge there are lots of possibilities. just about any fruit juice can be separated into pulp and a very light liquid while still keeping almost all of the characteristic flavors. 
Maybe you have a friend in a lab?


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## ThEoRy (Nov 3, 2014)

Gelatin consomme is a great way to extract pure flavors leaving impurities behind.


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## Zwiefel (Nov 3, 2014)

scotchef38 said:


> Orange flower water and rose water are both colourless and she could also boil some water with cloves or similar and use that as a base



Excellent ideas! I hadn't thought of them yet. 



mr drinky said:


> Last year when I was in Paso wine country, I was at a wine tasting room and they had a room completely painted in black and they said that they had done tastings in the room in the dark and it was amazing how many people couldn't distinguish even white from red wines. And there is this common challenge on Top Chef when contestants were blind folded, and it was also surprising how many people could not identify common items like ketchup and mayo. I think getting away from the extracted liquid and going to some sort of blind tasting might increase the options.
> 
> k.



I think that was the idea behind the black cups. that would only work for translucent colors though...blindfolds would extend that to opaque liquids (and gels) like ketchup and mayo. Another good point. Thanks K.



ThEoRy said:


> Gelatin consomme is a great way to extract pure flavors leaving impurities behind.



I know you and a couple of other have written about this on the forum before, but I couldn't follow the discussion. Can you share a link to an article/video/etc.?


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## daveb (Nov 3, 2014)

She could include a "flight" of flavored whipped creams in the experiment. Give you an excuse to buy a whip (or 3) for science...


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## Dardeau (Nov 3, 2014)

That is really weird, we just got a letter from a seven or eight year old girl at the restaurant asking the chef to tell her what role color plays in his food for a school project.


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## mr drinky (Nov 3, 2014)

I would be remiss as "Mr Drinky" to not give a completely inappropriate suggestion involving alcohol: flavored colorless vodka is the way to go 

k.


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## Zwiefel (Nov 3, 2014)

daveb said:


> She could include a "flight" of flavored whipped creams in the experiment. Give you an excuse to buy a whip (or 3) for science...



That's an interesting idea. 



Dardeau said:


> That is really weird, we just got a letter from a seven or eight year old girl at the restaurant asking the chef to tell her what role color plays in his food for a school project.



Hmmmm....maybe some kind of standardized curricula? or recent news stories?


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## Zwiefel (Nov 3, 2014)

No idea what the timeline is, but I'll share when I hear back.




ecchef said:


> Danny,
> I'd be interested to see the results!


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## Castalia (Nov 3, 2014)

Flavor extracts like almond or hazelnut. Fruit extracts abound as well: banana, raspberry, mango etc. Should be interesting to see the results of changing colors and taste perception. I just looked on Amazon and Bakto Flavors has many available in sets. Tell us the results of the experiment please.
:doublethumbsup:


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## ThEoRy (Nov 3, 2014)

http://www.molecularrecipes.com/techniques/gelatin-filtered-consomme-gelatin-filtration/


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## Zwiefel (Nov 3, 2014)

Castalia said:


> Flavor extracts like almond or hazelnut. Fruit extracts abound as well: banana, raspberry, mango etc. Should be interesting to see the results of changing colors and taste perception. I just looked on Amazon and Bakto Flavors has many available in sets. Tell us the results of the experiment please.
> :doublethumbsup:




Excellent! Yup, I'll share the results when I hear back from them.


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## scotchef38 (Nov 4, 2014)

mr drinky said:


> I would be remiss as "Mr Drinky" to not give a completely inappropriate suggestion involving alcohol: flavored colorless vodka is the way to go
> 
> k.


That suggestion had crossed my mind too!


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## Zwiefel (Nov 4, 2014)

Excellent, thanks Rick!



ThEoRy said:


> http://www.molecularrecipes.com/techniques/gelatin-filtered-consomme-gelatin-filtration/


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## orangehero (Nov 4, 2014)

I wonder if it will work as you expect. We understand that color does play a role in our perception of flavor, but I wonder if the pre-formed expectations of the taster are even more important. For example beer, when people expect a dark beer to be a certain way, if you take a light beer and color it dark then those people will perceived the dark beer traits that they have come to expect. If you're a naive taster and don't have expectations, like for extracts, then maybe there won't be much change if at all.

How about something like milk? If you color it brown without any chocolate flavor, will the kids start to taste chocolate?
Or apple juice and make it orange and opaque?


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## Zwiefel (Nov 4, 2014)

orangehero said:


> I wonder if it will work as you expect. We understand that color does play a role in our perception of flavor, but I wonder if the pre-formed expectations of the taster are even more important. For example beer, when people expect a dark beer to be a certain way, if you take a light beer and color it dark then those people will perceived the dark beer traits that they have come to expect. If you're a naive taster and don't have expectations, like for extracts, then maybe there won't be much change if at all.
> 
> How about something like milk? If you color it brown without any chocolate flavor, will the kids start to taste chocolate?
> Or apple juice and make it orange and opaque?



A lot of these questions are already pretty well understood. we KNOW that setting expectations with photos, and descriptions of food plays a HUGE role in the diner's perception of food quality. Like many areas of life, people see what they expect to see (confirmation bias). This is just a teenager meeting a school requirement by playing with food...and I approve!


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## orangehero (Nov 4, 2014)

It's definitely a fun experiment, but what I'm saying is I'm not sure the effect using extracts will work as well or as you expect compared to using something already familiar to the tasters.

How about using increasing intensity of color for the same intensity of flavor, with the hypothesis being that if the color is more intense, then the there is the perception of more intense flavor (by some rating say from 1-10). I'm assuming the essential point of the project is to apply the scientific method not to get in depth on the dynamics of sense perceptions.


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## Zwiefel (Nov 4, 2014)

orangehero said:


> It's definitely a fun experiment, but what I'm saying is I'm not sure the effect using extracts will work as well or as you expect compared to using something already familiar to the tasters.
> 
> How about using increasing intensity of color for the same intensity of flavor, with the hypothesis being that if the color is more intense, then the there is the perception of more intense flavor (by some rating say from 1-10). I'm assuming the essential point of the project is to apply the scientific method not to get in depth on the dynamics of sense perceptions.



They'll be comparing the perception of non-colored liquids to colored liquids that do not match the flavors...but you do raise an interesting idea, what about color intensity! I'll pass that along. Thanks OH!


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