Taste is also a sense.

Ask Americans which of the five senses they would miss most, and the answer is overwhelmingly sight.

In a 2018 YouGov poll, 70% chose sight. Hearing received 7%. Taste received 5%.

That is not a measure of how much pleasure each sense gives us. But it is an invitation to think about one we can easily take for granted.

Taste.

We look forward to lunch. Then we eat it while answering email.

We choose something good for dinner. Then give the phone more attention than the plate.

The food disappears. Some of the pleasure goes with it.

Distraction can change more than our memory of the meal. It can change how strongly we experience the flavor.

In a 2013 experiment, people doing a more demanding task rated sour, sweet and salty substances as less intense than people doing an easier task. They also consumed more and preferred stronger tastes. With more competing for their attention, the flavors registered less strongly.

In another experiment, 44 people ate the same lunch. Half played solitaire on a computer while eating; the others ate without that distraction. The distracted group felt less full afterward and recalled the order of the foods less accurately. Thirty minutes later, they ate nearly twice as much snack food.

These are specific experiments, not predictions about what will happen every time you check a message.

But they offer a good reason to give lunch a little room.

You might enjoy more of what is already on the plate.

And there is more to notice than taste alone.

In a 2004 experiment, researchers altered the sound people heard when biting into potato chips. A louder crunch, or amplified high frequencies, made the chips seem crisper and fresher. The chips had not changed. What people heard changed how they experienced them.

The crunch belongs to the bite.

So does the contrast between something rich and something bright. The tenderness beside something crisp. The finish that makes you want another mouthful.

That is what we cook for.

The brisket on our Orange Taco is smoked for fourteen hours. The Spicy Barbacoa gets eight. We cut the orange zest fresh each morning.

Those hours are our work.

The pleasure is yours.

On the Orange Taco, sweet orange leads. A bright pickle cuts through the richness. Orange zest leaves a lasting impression.

Give yourself a moment to notice.

Put the phone down. Move the plate away from the keyboard. Take the first bite without doing something else at the same time.

You do not have to name every ingredient. You do not have to turn lunch into an exercise.

Just taste it before you answer anything.

We cook from scratch because pleasure belongs in the middle of the day, too.

The first bite only happens once.

Be there for it.

Start with something worth noticing

Order online and take 10% off your first order. Put it on a plate. Give the first bite your attention.

Sources

1. The American poll behind the opening figures. YouGov, Of the Five Senses, a Majority Would Miss Sight the Most.
2. Task load and perceived taste intensity. Van der Wal and van Dillen, Leaving a Flat Taste in Your Mouth.
3. The 44-person lunch experiment on distraction, fullness, meal memory and later snacking. University of Bristol, Eating at Screen Can Lead to Later ‘Snack Attacks’.
4. The potato-chip experiment on sound and the eating experience. Zampini and Spence, The Role of Auditory Cues in Perceived Crispness and Staleness.