Does the food taste the same as if you hadn’t seen it yet? This blind taste testing activity is a fun sensory guessing game. This blindfolded experiment is a great way to get reluctant eaters trying new stuff and because it is a fun sensory game, they might be more open minded. 

Step 1: Preparation  

Secretly prepare different foods. Variety is encouraged- different foods, different textures and tastes. Please don’t go out of the house to get ingredients, get crafty with what you have on hand, for example cottage cheese, tapioca pudding, kiwi, sardines, marshmallows, bananas, jam, marinade, apple sauce etc.  

Prepare each food in a separate container and make sure to have an extra container on hand as well as paper towels and a glass of water, in case the kids aren’t fond of a certain food.  

Discuss the vocabulary before hand- Salty, sweet, acidic, bitter, sweet & sour, sweet & salty .

Step 2: Taste Test

Explain the activity to your kids and invite them to participate. You can prepare the food with your older kids. Cover your little taste tester’s eyes with a scarf-blindfold.  

Ask them to taste and describe the food and its textures. Attribute points if they guess what the food is. Make sure to alternate between types of food and textures. You can even make combinations of foods during this experiment. The main goal is to identify different tastes and textures. Keep of track of what the family tastes and preferences!

Step 3: Results

One the taste test is over, remove the blindfold and reveal the items that they haven’t guessed. So??? Does taste change without sight? Discuss which foods were enjoyed and not so much. You can continue to sample now that you can see the foods.  

Diary

We invite you to document todays activity in your journal. The description can be in the form of a drawing, a collage, a story, a poem or even by pasting objects related to this activity.
Here are a few questions that might fuel a discussion surrounding this activity.  

  • Without your sense of sight, were you able to identify foods based solely on taste? 
  • What surprised you the most during the blind taste test? 
  • Did you discover new foods, if so which ones? 

Did you know...

  • … It can take multiple times trying a new type of food before appreciating it? Check this video out! 
  • … Did you know there is four basic tastes? Salty, bitter, sweet and acidic! Check this video out! 
  • … All the fruits and vegetables your parents buy, there a label called the PLU code. This number identifies them. This international code called PLU (Price Look Up) is used to facilitate the control of inventory and prices at checkout. Collect PLU tags and play fruit and vegetable bingo. To learn more about PLUs, follow this link.

Here’s an interesting link on how to acquire good eating habits!  

To top things off, you might want to make woollen carrots. Who knows! It might even help attract the Easter bunny!  

 

 

An activity by Matante Claudette and Kim de Bine.