“The Use of Standard Electrode Potentials to Predict the Taste of Solid Metals”, 2011-04-07 (; backlinks):
Standard electrode potentials were found to be good predictors of the taste of metals. Gold and chrome were the least metallic and least bitter metals in our tests. Zinc and copper were the most metallic, most bitter tasting metals in our tests.
Not all metals taste equally metallic when placed in the mouth. While much work has been done to examine the metallic taste sensations arising from metal ions in solutions, there is comparatively less known about the taste of solid metals.
In this study, 7 metals in the form of spoons were used to compare the perception of taste arising from solid utensils placed inside the mouth. 32 participants tasted 7 spoons of identical dimensions plated with each of the following metals: gold, silver, zinc, copper, tin, chrome and stainless steel.
More negative standard electrode potentials were found to be good predictors of solid metals that had tastes scoring highest for the taste descriptors ‘strong’, ‘bitter’ and ‘metallic’.
Thus, it was found that both gold and chrome (having the most positive standard electrode potentials) were considered the least ‘metallic’, least ‘bitter’ and least ‘strong’ tasting of the spoons. Zinc and copper (having the most negative standard electrode potentials) were the ‘strongest’, most ‘metallic’, most ‘bitter’, and least ‘sweet’ tasting of the spoons.
We conclude that gold and chrome have tastes that are less strong than metals with lower standard electrode potentials.
[Could electrodes deliberately enhance saltiness?]