Colour-taste synesthesia

(or colour-to-taste synesthesia)

It could be considered a type of visual-gustatory or conceptual-gustatory synesthesia

This type of synesthesia appears to be uncommon. It can exist alone or together with colour-to-smell synesthesia, as people with this latter type often say that seeing colours causes them to perceive both olfactory and gustatory concurrents and it is sometimes even difficult for them to distinguish whether what they are perceiving is a taste or a smell. In the cases reported, the taste concurrent is produced when the person perceives the colour visually, although presumably in many cases it is enough for the synesthete to merely think about the colour in question or perhaps hear someone say its name, as colours are clearly a conceptual inducer.

Go to the page on colour-to-smell synesthesia

Here are some descriptions written by people with this type of synesthesia:

“Red is not cherry. Each color has a unique identificative taste, but the tastes don’t really correspond to "real life" tastes. Its hard to explain how blue tastes, it just tastes like blue!

Different shades all have different tastes, and it can vary greatly. It's all the same general taste, like blue is always sweet, but the kind of sweet changes from shade to shade.”

(Source: This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2017.)

“Brown. Rich, moist, a very deep flavor, salty and slightly bitter with a creamy texture. It’s a very specific brown that illicits that taste. Hard to describe.

Purple. Velvety, overly sweet with a touch of sour and very very rich.”

Not all colors, but many. It’s not overwhelming really because I’m used to it.

(Source: post and comments by "redheadedstranger" in this forum. 2013.)

“I taste and smell colors. Taste is around eyes but when strong enough it hits the back of my tongue/throat. Aroma is smelled with my physical nose when I breathe air with it.”

(Source: This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2017.)

“I can taste colours, yet only when I think about it, otherwise I don't really notice it.

When you look at a colour, you percieve it visually as a colour (i.e. red, green, blue). But you also view it as a taste. Most colours taste like things that you can't really relate to. (However, black specifically has a bland, wholesome taste to it).”

(Source: This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2017.)

This scientific study (Drakoulis Nikolinakos et al., University of Athens, 2013) is about the case of a artist with colour-taste synesthesia, which he uses in his work to help him judge and improve his paintings.

"His unidirectional synesthesia involves three of the four basic tastes: greens produce bitterness, reds produce sweetness, and yellows produce sourness. (...) He experiences tastes synesthetically, mainly when painting and when looking at works of art, but also from perceiving the colors of his surroundings, e.g., the color of trees. The intensity of the synesthetic taste varies with the purity, amount, and intensity of the perceived hues."

Related types of synesthesia:

Colour-to-smell

This page last updated: 16 June 2024