why does food taste better outside in the winter?

I've noticed this phenomenon more than once. Food tastes significantly more flavorful when eating it outside in cold air. I'm not sure if it's the change of temperature going from warm to cold, or just being in the cold. An exhaustive search on google has led to zero information on the phenomenon.

It first happened with a piece of toast, i took it with me out into the cold, then I started trying out other foods. Some have a more dramatic difference in flavor than others. Some are extremely more flavorful than others, while some foods show little difference.

A couple of things I've walked outside into the winter air with that i recall having a VERY dramatic difference are walnuts, a cuban sandwich, carmel/cheese popcorn mix.

This may explain why maxwell street tacos taste so much better in the winter. I always just thought it was because the cold made me hungrier or something.

Has anyone else noticed this, or have any scientific explanation/hypothesis for it?

Pinch you nose tight, then eat (outside and inside). For the same food is there a flavor difference?
Based on the foods you describe which would have much aroma, perhaps the cold air reduces the amount of volatile flavor compounds diffusing away. That way more of the flavor molecules make it to your nose. Flavor = taste + aroma; essentially why things don't taste much at all when you have a cold and stuffed nose.

If i recall correctly it was mostly in the nose that there was a difference. I'll check on that and report back.

Thanks, Sazerac.

Do you know why sex is better in the morning?

YourPalWill wrote:Thanks, Sazerac.

Do you know why sex is better in the morning?

Note to self: subscribe to this thread....

Uncle Bonsai knows...
Boys Want Sex in the Morning

might have somthing to do with breathing in colder air?
and when you have morning wood ,you should put it to use

YourPalWill wrote:Thanks, Sazerac.

Do you know why sex is better in the morning?

Usually I don't bite back.
But since you asked so nice - check your pm.

And for this edition of VoyeurTH where another perfectly innocuous thread goes down the youtube

that opening clip was filmed just south of joliet,il at a motel off I-55

Do you recall if after you apply perfume, you can no longer smell the scent of it on yourself after an hour or so? If you do baking... the scent the baking seems to have dissipated, yet a person entering the house mentions the lovely aroma. If you walk into different peoples homes you will notice they have a slight scent of the people who live there but after you've been there for awhile, you no longer smell the uniqueness of that home.
Department stores who sell perfume leave out a brandy snifter of coffee beans, it refreshes your senses and you can compare perfumes. I think the fresh air does the same. It kind of cleanses our palate, so to speak.
I too have noticed that when I go outside to eat food, the taste is EXTREME. Each bite holds it's flavour until the very end, where as after the first few bitefulls of anything inside, the meal seems to lose it's flavour.
The only thing I can think to do, is take as many bites as you can outdoors.