Why does the temperature of food affect how it tastes?

Question

There are foods and drinks that we typically serve hot, cold, or room temperature. They taste better in those forms… but why?

In: Other

Answer 1

I’m sure there are a lot of reasons, but one specific example: there are certain components of food that melt at specific temperatures, which changes how we experience the flavor of that food.

The fat in tuna and the fat in chocolate both melt at something very close to human body temperature, which is said to be one of the reasons people enjoy them so much – they literally “melt in your mouth”