Chai pe charcha: Does dunking a biscuit in tea really make it tastier?

Do biscuits actually taste better after dunking it in tea? Believe it or not but a new research has found that submerging biscuits in tea do make it taste better.

As reported by The Sun, scientist Dr Ian Fisk, an associate professor of food chemistry at the University of Nottingham shared his findings on BBC Two’s Inside The Factory.

According to the show, presenter Cherry Healey took part in an experiment which saw her eating biscuits with a tube up her nose.

Dr Fisk compared how many aromas were released while eating a dry biscuit to one that had been dunked in tea,

The test found that the dunked biscuit produced twice the number of aromas than the dry biscuit did - making it taste twice as good.

Speaking on the show, Dr Fisk said that the aroma and taste compounds can diffuse out to the mouth and the nose much more efficiently.

However, this is not the first time such an experiment took place. According to cookbook author Heston Blumenthal who did a number of scientific experiments, a chocolate cookie dipped in black tea did actually have more flavour. Blumenthal who is known to be a science fanatic worked with a number of food scientists towards developing a new machine which would measure the amount of flavour released into the mouth when one sips tea or chew a cookie.

The results found that cookies released more flavour and aroma when dunked in tea. This is because of methylbutanol; a compound linked to the tasty flavours found in baked goods and is released quickly into the mouth and nose when the cookie is dunked.