On tasty colours and colourful tastes? Assessing, explaining, and utilizing crossmodal correspondences between colours and basic tastes

Abstract

The idea that the four or five basic tastes-bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and possibly also umami-are in some way associated with particular colours is one that has widespread currency. The idea surfaces in many places, from the fiction of Borges [2]1 through to innovative marketing campaigns such as the one orchestrated on behalf of Boss, a Belgian paint manufacturer (see [64]).2 But is there something more to the idea of mapping basic tastes and colours than an interesting aesthetic endeavour?