Strawberries. Not So Sweet?
The nose knows.
Believe it or not, strawberries aren’t actually that sweet and contain only about one-third of the sugar found in apples, cherries, and pineapples and about half as much as oranges and blueberries. But when you eat an in-season strawberry, it comes off as quite sweet. How do they do it? It’s all about aroma.
Aroma Makes Strawberries Taste Sweet
Scientists who study strawberries have identified hundreds of aroma compounds that bring a wide range of aromas, such as caramel, pineapple, and orange blossom—all of which are strongly associated with sweetness in our brains.
When we eat a strawberry, those aroma compounds shoot up a back channel in our throats and into our nasal passages. There we process that information with what’s in our mouths and perceive them as sweeter than their sugar content would suggest.
How Temperature Impacts Strawberry Flavor
Have you ever been to a pick-your-own strawberry farm? The fields are always bursting with strawberry aroma. That’s because strawberries in a sunny field are warm, which makes the berries more aromatic and thus, sweeter tasting.
Our ability to taste sweetness is temperature dependent. Taste a room temperature strawberry next to one straight from the fridge, and you’ll find the cold one far less enjoyable.
Apply too much heat to strawberries through cooking though, and you quickly drive off a massive amount of aroma. At the same time, the aromas that remain in the fruit are often changed. The bottom line is: Cooked strawberry tastes very different from fresh.
