Can you taste with your eyes? A recent study has concluded that sight may affect your taste buds more than you think! It’s amazing how interconnected our senses are and how they are able to influence one another. For instance, something with an unappealing smell might taste worse than it would with a more pleasant smell. Something similar might be happening with our sight, according to an Australian experiment published in Flavour Journal.   The study set out to determine whether the color of the mug influenced the taste of coffee. A small group drank the same latte out of white, blue, and clear mugs, and they rated the coffee on its intensity, sweetness, and bitterness.   The group consistently rated the coffee in the white mug as being more bitter and intense than the other mugs, even though it was exactly the same coffee.   Why is that?   According to the study, the contrast in color between the brown coffee and the white mug caused the participants to perceive a stronger flavor. This can happen with other food, too! Any strong color contrast can increase the intensity of the food’s flavors, demonstrating a connection between the sense of sight and taste.   You may have heard of something called synesthesia—when one sense is experienced through another, such as people who can see music or hear colors. If our eyes can help determine how food or drink will taste, then maybe we all have a little bit of synesthesia in us!   Test it out yourself: grab a drink with an intense flavor, like Spicy Aztec Tea, and try it out of different colored mugs to see which yields the best taste!