Writing the Hypothesis

This experiment works from a hypothesis that people's ideas of what certain foods taste like are affected by prior food-color associations. Some common food-color associations include perceptions of red drinks tasting like cherries or strawberries, yellow drinks tasting like lemons, orange beverages tasting like oranges and purple drinks tasting like grapes. A good question to explore in a hypothesis for this experiment might include, "Can a food's color influence how a person perceives its taste?"

Finding Participants

Find participants among neighbors or classmates. Explain to potential test subjects that this experiment requires the drinking of sugary beverages, and ask if they have any medical conditions requiring them to monitor their sugar intake. Gather data from acceptable subjects prior to your experiment with a questionnaire designed to reveal their familiarity with and beliefs about different-colored and flavored drinks. Possible questions include, "How familiar do you consider yourself with different-colored drinks, on a scale from one to five?" and "On a scale from one to five, how experienced are you in tasting flavored drinks?"

Conducting the Experiment

Set up cups of different-colored drinks, including the drink that is colored but unflavored. Some test items to use include three different-colored sodas and one unflavored, clear soda (like club soda or seltzer water) with food coloring in it, or three different-colored flavored drinks and colored water. Ask subjects to taste the different drinks blindfolded to eliminate any visual cues, then switch the order of the drinks and conduct the experiment again with blindfolds off. Give subjects water to drink between each taste test, and have participants tell you what they think each drink tastes like after each tasting.

Concluding the Experiment

Analyze your results. Determine your conclusion by comparing data from trials conducted with and without blindfolds. Did more people correctly identify the flavors of the drinks when they could see their colors versus when they couldn't? If more people incorrectly identified the unflavored drink as a flavored drink simply because of its color, a conclusion could be written that the unflavored drink's color influenced your subjects' perception of its taste. Make graphs to visually demonstrate your results.