The effectiveness of palate cleansing strategies for evaluating the bitterness of caffeine in cream cheese

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of seven methods used to cleanse the palate including: water, sparkling water, carrots, crackers, plain cream cheese, and rinsing six times or not at all before evaluations. Twenty subjects rated the bitterness intensity of cream cheese samples varying in caffeine content. Each participant completed seven sessions, using a different palate cleanser in each session. We found no differences in the effectiveness of these palate-cleansing strategies for their ability to control adaptation and build-up, or for their ability to increase panelists' discrimination among samples. Rinsing with sparkling water depressed the perceived bitterness at all levels of caffeine.