Measuring the optimal sweetness-sourness balance
The current just-right scales evaluate relative-to-ideal sweetness and relative-to-ideal sourness separately, but they do not have a measure of the balance between both sweetness and sourness on one scale. We tested the usefulness of a new sweetness-sourness balance scale (“too much sour” at one end, “too much sweet” at the other end, and “just right” in the center) for predicting overall liking of lemonade. Forty-six participants rated seven lemonade samples with sugar concentrations from 4% to 14.5% (all with the same acid content) for overall liking, just-about-right sweetness, just-about-right sourness, and optimal sweetness-sourness balance. When mean ratings of just-about-right sweetness and of sweetness-sourness balance (x-axis) were plotted against the overall liking scores (y-axis), the proposed balance scale was more sensitive to panelist’s liking ratings as it presented a steeper slopes than the just-about-right sweetness scale. The balance scale more precisely predicted the highest overall liking scores compared with the just-about-right sweetness scale ratings. The balance scale may be a more useful tool for determining an optimal value of an ingredient than the just-about-right rating of a single attribute such as sweetness.