Why Does Salt Change the Taste of Everything?

If your coffee is too bitter, add a pinch of salt. If your salad isn’t sour enough, add a pinch of salt. If your beer is too bitter, add a pinch of salt. Salt has a seemingly magical ability to enhance good flavors and dampen bad ones. Come along on George’s epic journey into the wilds of salt science.

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Credits:

Executive Producer:
Matthew Radcliff

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey
Darren Weaver

Writer/Host:
George Zaidan

Scientific Consultants:

Gary Beauchamp, Ph.D.
Michelle Boucher, PhD
Brianne Raccor, PhD

Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell


Reactions is a production of the American Chemical Society.
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.


Sources:

An overview of binary taste-taste interactions
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0950-3293(02...

Handbook of Perception Volume 6A - Edward C. Carterette - Google Books
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&...

The taste of table salt - PMC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Bitterness suppression as revealed by split-tongue taste stimulation in humans - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Taste of Sodium Chloride Solutions after Adaptation to Sodium Chloride: Implications for the "Water Taste" | Science
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...