The development of a new product using aromas requires that the characteristics of aromas should be clarified. The purpose of this research is to propose a technique to evaluate the characteristics of aromas using synaesthetic verbal expressions as a mediation variable. In experiment 1, 40 panels evaluated the strength of the relationships between 32 synaesthetic verbal expressions of aromas and 10 sensory modalities. In experiment 2, 45 college students smelled 6 types of aromas and selected an adequate expression from the 32 synaesthetic verbal expressions. Quantification of the strength of the relationships between the 6 aromas and the sensory modalities was achieved by combining the results of the two experiments. By indicating the sensory modality corresponding to the aroma, this technique would be helpful in adequately specifying quality compositions.
