eli5 Why do food and drink taste different based on their temperature?
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As temperature increases, so does kinetic energy. This means the molecules are moving around faster, bumping into things more often (including your taste receptors).
Also, many of the molecules associated with taste tend to be what we call volatile, meaning they go from liquid to gas easily. As the temperature increases, more of these compounds are going into the vapor phase, which is why hot food generates more smell than cold food. Smell is a very important part of tasting our foods, so changing how. Many molecules are evaporating changes the taste
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