Influence of Sex Differences on Temporal Sequence of Sensations after Ingesting Fruit-Flavored Tea—A Preliminary Study

Abstract

The goal of this preliminary study was to examine the effect of participants’ sexes on the temporal sequence of dominant sensations elicited by fruit-flavored teas. Twelve healthy young adults were assigned to male (n = 6) and female (n = 6) groups. Both groups were evaluated for four sensations using four fruit-flavored teas with 0.05 M sucrose using the temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) method. Only two sensations, sweetness and fruitiness, were consistently reported in the two groups. The male group first reported fruitiness and then sweetness as the dominant sensation following ingestion of the samples. Conversely, the female group reported these two dominant sensations in the reverse order. Significant dominant durations between the two sensations largely varied among the samples in both groups. These results suggest that there are sex-based differences in the temporal sequence of dominant sensations elicited by fruit-flavored teas as evaluated by the TDS method.