Make Your Protein Shake Pretty and It will Taste Better

I know it sounds silly.  But they’ve done studies.  Not on protein shakes, specifically.  But they did a study where they gave people something to drink and the color and the flavor did not match.  For instance, they gave them a red drink that was grape flavored and an orange drink that was cherry flavored.  A lot of people in the study thought the flavor was whatever would match the color, even though it wasn’t.  You can add a few drops of food coloring to your protein shake if it’s an icky-looking color and it might just taste better.

You can also make your shake taste better by putting it in a pretty glass.  I know that sounds silly, too.  But they did a study where they gave people three brownies, one served on a nice china plate, on served on a paper plate, and one served on a paper napkin.  The people in the study said the brownie served on the nice china plate tasted the best.  However, the three brownies were all exactly the same. 

And if you want more proof that how your shake looks matters, check out Nik’s yummy-looking protein shakes on bariatricfoodie.com.  Don’t you just know these have to taste good?

You know as an aside I didn't realize how much the brain had to do with taste until I gave a baby shower at my job and did this one game. I covered jars of baby food in news wrap then folks were also blind folded and had to taste a bite of each jar of baby food and guess what it is. Nobody got any of the flavors right, not eve the banana (which most people guessed was apple sauce). I covered the jars so that the audience couldn't make any comment on the looks of it and blindfolded them for "added fun.


I have been banned from ever doing this game again, lol.

Hey, there's a baby shower game I've never played before.  I'll have to remember that one.  I can never think of good games for baby showers.

Have you watched Hell's Kitchen?  Chef Ramsey always does this challenge where he blindfolds the contestants and feeds them things and they have trouble identifying even real basic food like boiled potatoes or pears.

I LOVE Hell's Kitchen.  And Nik....thanks for the baby shower game idea!  I'm attending
one in October and my friend is looking for games for it.  =)

i agree with this. when i make green smoothies for the kids, i always add a bit of food coloring so it's not brown lol. the frozen berries with the spinach makes a gross color. i don't care, but they think it looks like mud.

 i almost always make mine pretty. like put hot ones in my pretty mugs with a squirt of whipped cream, and the cold ones i put in the reusable starbucks-type cups so it feels like i'm drinking starbucks not protein