What’s Your Flavour?

Taste preferences of the UK’s major regions have been by top food psychologist Greg Tucker with input from Andy Taylor, Professor of Flavour Technology from the University of Nottingham and advisor to Heston Blumenthal. The research was commissioned by Costa.

The insightful study reveals that each region in the UK has its own unique taste dialect of flavours and textures forged by local culture, geography and the environment. Each region’s taste dialect was also found to impact a different section of the tongue itself. For example, Scots specifically seek rich, creamy flavours that impact the back of the tongue, whereas people from the North East prefer tastes which impact the tip of the tongue.

Key findings:

* The UK’s favourite regional foods stem from the West Country. Nearly a third of people polled preferred foods traditional to the South West, particularly
Cheddar cheese and Devonshire cream teas.
* Scots are the slowest eaters and contrary to folklore, prefer Yorkshire pudding and Italian ice cream because of their mouth-melting properties, dispelling the myth that all Scots love foods like haggis and kippers.
* People from the North East seek tastes that offer immediate satisfaction, borne from a history of hungry heavy industry workers demanding foods that offer immediate sustenance.
* The Midlands is known to be the Balti centre of the UK, but the research proves that people from the area were predisposed to enjoy Asian food long before it arrived in the UK. The region’s taste dialect is for soft, suckable foods that impact the front of the tongue, have a slightly sweet dimension and can be eaten
with their hands like naan.
* The South: A melting pot of people and cultures from all round the UK and abroad, the South/South East of England has the least defined taste dialect of all the regions. Foods such as jellied eels and Whitstable oysters are still redolent of the area but no longer represent mainstream choices or underpin a regional palate.

Professor Andy Taylor comments, “Taste is determined by our genetic make-up and influenced by our upbringing and experience with flavours. Just as with spoken dialects, where accent is placed on different syllables and vowel formations, people from different regions have developed enhanced sensitivities to certain taste sensations and seek foods that trigger these.”