The Underrated Headphone Trick That Makes Airplane Food Taste Better
By Jenna Busch
VACATIONS
There's an interesting theory about how headphones can make food and drinks taste better in-flight, as low noises, like the plane rumbling, can make them taste more bitter.
Oxford professor Charles Spence said, "The lower cabin pressure, dry cabin air, and loud engine noise all contribute to our inability to taste and smell food and drink."
Spence found that our perception of bitterness can increase up to 10 percent with low tones, so using headphones to dampen low pitches may make your food less bitter-tasting.
Noise-canceling headphones analyze the ambient sound waves around you and produce the opposite sound waves to cancel them out. That means less of the deep plane noise.
Reducing deep sound helps with sweetness perception in particular, especially if you're listening to tinkling high tones. Dry cabin air can also affect taste, so stay hydrated.