Music can affect people in astounding ways. It has the power to reach deep inside us and churn up feelings we may not have felt otherwise. In that sense, we have more in common with a block of cheese than what initially meets the eye.

In March of 2019, the Bern University of the Arts released a study on the “bio-acoustic impact of sound waves [on the] metabolic processes in cheese…” In basic terms, a different sound equals a different flavor.

The study was conducted as part of the University’s “HKB Goes Ashore” cultural project in the Emme Valley of Burgdorf, Switzerland. There teams developed the study over the course of several months during which the nine blocks of Emmental cheese were exposed to different musical styling.

Cheese Connoisseur records that the following sound were used:

• Ambient: Yello Monolith
• Classical: Mozart – The Magic Flute
• Techno:  Vril – UV
• Rock: Led Zeppelin – Stairway to  Heaven
• Hip Hop : A  Tribe Called  Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got)
• Sine mean: 200  hz
• Sine high: 1000  hz
• Sinus low: 25  hz

Eight wheels of cheese were exposed to musics at different frequencies (low, medium, and high) during the maturing process. It is scientifically notable that all the milk used came from the same farmers and were processed in the same vat. The ninth wheel acted as their control (an unchanged factor). A jury of taste testers were chosen from among various scientific and culinary backgrounds. The result recorded were very intriguing.

The cheeses under the influence of acoustics generally became milder in flavor than their control. However the cheese exposed to hip-hop produced a “discernibly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste than the other test samples.” Further research may be conducted to confirm the causative relationship between music and cheese taste.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cheese Connoisseur