Psychophysical Relationships Between Perceived Sweetness and Color in Lemon‐ and Lime‐Flavored Drinks

The effect of color, as measured on the Gardner XL‐23 calorimeter, on the sweetness perception of a series of lime‐ and lemon‐colored and flavored beverages was quantified by taste panelists using magnitude estimation. The regression lines for each colored series in the lemon drinks were found to differ significantly (p < 0.05) indicating that color had a significant effect on sweetness and the inequality of the slopes of the lines obtained when sweetness was plotted versus log color further confirmed this effect. A sucrose level of 4.4% maximized the effect of color on sweetness perception in both the lime (p < 0.01) and lemon (p < 0.05) drinks.