Students hold up taste test cups from a mindful tasting activity.
Students hold taste test cups during an activity at Amanda C. Rowe Elementary School in Portland, Maine. Photo by Julia Sienkiewicz.

When you try a new food, what senses do you use? You probably thought of taste or smell. But what if you paid extra attention to the sound of crunching into a carrot, or the feel of bumpy, seed-y skin on a strawberry?  

At FoodCorps we call this mindful tasting: using all five senses to notice the different features of our food. Mindfulness is the practice of being present in our experiences. And mindful tasting helps us to slow down, notice what we’re eating, and focus on enjoying our food.

FoodCorps members sometimes use mindful tasting when introducing kids to new foods, but mindful tasting can also help us appreciate the foods we eat every day. 

How to try mindful tasting

Ready to try a mindful taste test at home? Use these prompts to engage all five senses while you eat a simple snack. In this example, we’ll use an apple. 

Touch: Close your eyes and feel the apple with your fingers. Notice the texture of the skin and see how many words you can come up with that describe it. With your eyes closed, are there any other fruits or vegetables it reminds you of? 

Smell: With your eyes still closed, bring the apple to your nose and inhale. What does the apple smell like? Is it pleasant, unpleasant, neutral? Does the smell change if you turn the apple around in your hand? 

Hear: With your eyes still closed, tap your finger on the apple and listen to the sound it makes. 

See: Open your eyes and carefully examine the apple, noticing the colors and shapes you see. Do you notice any bruises or mottling? How many distinct colors can you count? 

Taste: Take one bite of the apple. Notice how the apple tastes at first bite, then how it changes as you chew. Is it sweet, tart, bright, or mild? Again, see how many words you can come up with that describe it. 

Hear: Listen to the sound the apple makes as you take another bite and chew it. How is the sound of crunching different from the sound of chewing?

Wrapping up: What was your favorite sense to use? Did any part of the activity surprise you? 

To bring this activity to the next level, try a mindful taste test of two types of the same food, like a red apple and a green apple, to notice the differences between them. Now that you have the basics down, try a round of mindful tasting at your next family meal or snack time. You may be surprised at how differently your senses experience the same food! 

This post is based on FoodCorps’ Mindful Tasting lesson, designed for kindergarteners and older. Visit foodcorps.org for more kid-friendly activities about food.

Related read: 17 Children’s Books We Love All About Food | “Kids learn about food in all kinds of places, from the school garden to the cafeteria to the family dinner table. But no matter where kids explore food, there are countless children’s books out there to support their learning. Among the thousands of children’s books that teach kids about cooking, gardening, ingredients, or tasting new foods, we’ve hand-picked a few of our favorites for nurturing kids’ curiosity about food.”