SNAPSHOT: Hip Hop Makes Cheese Taste Better, Finds a Strange Swiss Experiment

(Credit: Stefan Wermuth/University of the Arts Bern) “Cheese in Surround Sound” is the name of a fun culinary arts experiment that wrapped up last week in Switzerland. Wheels of cheese have been bathing in sound as they ripen over the past seven months to answer a strange question: “Do sound waves affect the metabolic processes in ripening cheese to the extent that a sono-chemical impact on taste and flavor can be detected.” The answer so far seems to be ... probably. The cheese wheels were continuously exposed to low, medium and high frequency sound waves, in addition to ambient, classical, rock, techno and hip-hop music (plus a control cheese, of course.) Notable differences in taste and smell were reported from multiple blind taste tests last week, conducted by a team of jurors including artists, chefs and politicians. Hip hop came out on top with a “softer, more floral taste” according ...