A recent study from Danish scientists have found that the oft-bitter flavor of coffee helps sweet foods taste even sweeter. Yes, this mundane knowledge apparently has to be ‘discovered’ by a university to be valid.
There are entire fields dedicated to pairing or contrasting flavor notes to enhance the experience. Hell, you see a similar logic at work when ordering pizza online and being offered a variety of sugary sodas. What has been ‘found’ here isn’t new in the least.
I love deep-diving into all the fascinating facets of coffee. Over the months I’ve kept a close eye on scientific articles analyzing coffee’s antioxidant count and how it does — or doesn’t — translate into healthy results. I’m endlessly curious about the process that goes into picking, washing and packaging green coffee bean varieties. Never mind the unique histories behind each origin! There’s always something new to learn and I’m thrilled to be part of the journey…
…whiiich is why I’m having a rather hard time getting excited over basic information being rebranded as a surprising discovery. Are people really that starved for content?
You don’t have to be a sommelier to know bitter notes change your palette, no more than you have to be a painter to know that yellow contrasts blue. Now, the study does have an interesting angle in how this knowledge can be used to help diabetic and extremely overweight patients change their diets. That’s a fantastic focus that could help a lot of people! All I’m asking is that we don’t take basic knowledge and pretend it’s something else. If the approach of this study had leaned closer to ‘confirming’ or ‘pivoting’ rather than ‘discovery’, I wouldn’t have rolled my eyes quite so hard.
Pro-tip from a copywriter with several years of experience…words mean things. Trying to reinvent the wheel sounds appealing in an oversaturated world increasingly defined by people screaming the loudest, but it’s a myth best left in the dust.
dragonsandflowers 