Why Tomato Juice Flavors Better on an Airplane

Have you ever noticed how some foods taste fully different when you’re on an airplane? If you have, it's not in your head.

There’s some self-same interesting science behind why certain things—like tomato juice—taste differently at 35,000 feet. In fact, for some, they even taste better. As mentioned in a fresh article in the Los Angeles Times, studies have established that those who usually try their nose up at the idea of drinking tomato juice tend to like it when it’s served sky-high.

ASSOCIATED: The Real Reason Why Food Tastes Different on an Airplane

Numerous things factor in to what causes this taste change to happen. Once you step onto a plane, minds like taste and smell begin to dull payable to the low humidity, and once you’re thousands of feet in the air, those senses change completely—the sensation is similar to stressed to taste or smell when you have a cold.

Sweetened and salty flavors become mainly difficult to detect in the air. You need a functioning sense of smell to properly taste flavor, but when you’re on an airplane, the dry cabin air inhibits our odor receptors causing food to discrimination a bit blander than what we’re used to. It’s about 30 percent more difficult to detect those sweet and salty tastes, according to a 2010 revision from the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Germany.

ASSOCIATED: Why Does Airplane Coffee Taste Weird?

So, because of tomato juice’s simple flavor at a normal pressure, with cabin pressure it becomes sweet-smelling—fruity, even.

Additionally, tomatoes are rich in flavor known as umami—a taste that is thought of by most as very savory and pleasant. Because umami is unaffected by altitude (and perhaps even improved by loud background noise, like a plane engine), this savory flavor becomes more noticeable in tomato juice, thus making it appealing to someone who may not enjoy it on the earth.

Now find out why your ears pop when you’re on an airplane.