Abstract
The temperature range for consuming hot drinks includes temperatures that can damage cells on the tongue. We hypothesized that the consumption of very hot drinks can lead to a decrease in the ability to perceive low concentrations of tastants. We evaluated the ability to perceive low concentrations of five prototypical sapid compounds in 42 women and 40 men aged 18–65. A questionnaire made it possible to collect the usual frequencies (number of unit/day) and consumption temperature levels (medium hot/very hot) for four very common hot drinks (coffee, tea, herbal infusions, and hot chocolate). Our results showed that subjects who consumed very hot drinks (versus medium hot) were less sensitive to sweet (p = 0.020) and salty (p = 0.046) tastes. An aggravating effect of high consumption frequencies was only shown for sweet taste (p = 0.036). Moreover, our data also showed that women were more sensitive than men to sour, bitter, and umami tastes (p values < 0.05), as well as that taste sensitivity decreases with age, especially after 50 years old (all tastes; p values < 0.05). These findings strengthen our knowledge about the influence of sex and age on taste sensitivity, and they provide knowledge on the influence of consumption habits related to hot drinks on taste sensitivity.
Highlights
Coffee and tea are the two most frequently consumed hot drinks in the world [1]
The average correlation coefficients observed from one repetition to another with the T@sty test were within the same order of magnitude (0.40–0.53)
Our results complement current knowledge regarding the effect of age and sex on taste sensitivity
Summary
Other widely consumed hot drinks include herbal infusions, hot chocolate, and mate These drinks are obtained by solid–liquid extraction (coffee, tea, mate, etc.) or by dissolution using a solvent (example: hot chocolate and instant coffee). In any case, their preparation involves the use of a solvent that is heated to a very high temperature, most often water. According to Brown and Diller [3], hot beverages such as tea, hot chocolate, and coffee are frequently served at temperatures between 71.1 and 85 ◦C. In a cohort study involving more than 40,000 regular tea drinkers, Islami et al [7] showed that 39.0% of participants drank their tea at a temperature below 60 ◦C, 38.9% drank it between 60 and ◦C, and 22.0% drank it at more than ◦C
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