See why no one can eat just one: Swetha Sivakumar decodes flavour

Your favourite snacks aren’t just a matter of combining salt, fat, acid and heat. What makes chips or instant noodles so enticing is input from all five senses.

We treat the words “taste” and “flavour” as interchangeable. But taste is unidimensional, referring only to the feedback we get from tastebuds (classified as sweet, sour, salty, bitter or umami). Flavour – our impression of a food or drink – depends on a lot else; on all five senses, in fact.

The more the senses are engaged, the more enticing a food becomes. Food scientists and experienced cooks know this and use it to their advantage. It’s why so much