To understand the multimodal effects of soft drink color and flavor on the predicted palatability and taste, we prepared six differently colored water in individual plastic bottles: yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green, by dissolving artificial colorants with mineral water. We also used four types of essence: lemon, apple, strawberry, and mint. Each essence was placed on a smelling-strip on the underside of the bottle cap. In the visual experiment, subjects observed one of the colored waters without any olfactory cues. In the olfactory experiment, they observed non-colored water and smelled the underside of the cap. In the visual-olfactory experiment, they observed one of the colored waters while smelling an essence. Subjects evaluated the predicted palatability, sweetness, sourness, and bitterness in each experiment. As a result, palatability was higher for the yellow color with lemon flavor, and red color with strawberry flavor. In addition, the contribution ratios of flavor to color were 1.24 for palatability, 4.61 for sweetness, 1.91 for sourness, and 1.98 for bitterness.
