Blind food tasting

Tune into your senses...

One powerful way to feel more focused is to pay attention to your senses. When you tune into your senses, you shift your focus away from your day to day preoccupations. By paying attention to your sensory experience, you are training your mind to stay present in the moment and to improve your concentration.

Blind food tasting is a great game for concentrating the senses. The aim is to focus on the food and let your imagination go from there!

This is a great game for the whole family and can be played competitively or just for fun.

What you need

5 or more type of foods – enough to cover sweet, bitter, salty and sour tastes (berries, nuts, olives, ham, small pieces of cheese, grapefruit, lemon slices… you name it)

A tea towel to cover the eyes – for those tempted to look. . !

How to play

First, experience the food with your eyes closed. . .

1. Lift-up the food to your nose and smell it without touching and respond to the following questions:

Questions: How does it smell? (There are more than 75 English words to describe smell – can you find the right one for you?)

2. Place a piece of food in your palm.

Questions: How the food feels in their hand? Is it soft, hard, wet, dry, heavy, light? Is it cold or warm?

3. Touch the food with fingers and feel its texture.

Questions: Is it smooth, rough, chewy or crunchy?

4. Put the food on your tongue – without biting it, just yet!

Questions: Does the texture feel different when it is in your mouth compared to when it was in your palm?

5. Bite into the food.

Questions: What does it taste like? Is it sweet, sour, salty or spicy? Is there more than one flavour?

6. Swallow the food.

Questions: How does it feel sliding down your throat. Does it leave a flavour in your mouth?

Now, reflect on the experience of the food. . .

7. Don’t try to guess the food – you should leave that till last! Instead try to build an imaginary world to accompany your experience.

Questions: Did the food trigger a memory? Where would you like to eat it? What colour do you associate it with? Does it transport you to a different historical period? What clothes might you want to wear while eating it? If the food were an animal what would it be? Which character from a book or film would you like to see eating it? What piece of music would you like to accompany it? What emotion best describes it?

How did you find this sensory play?

Let us know your experience! Share your photos, comments or feedback with us on our Facebook page.