Report

Research by Costa Coffee revealed that where people live not only affects their dialect but also how they taste food and drink. Taste preferences from 13,000 people in the UK’s major regions have been analysed by food psychologist Greg Tucker, with input from Andy Taylor, professor of flavour technology from the University of Nottingham and advisor to Heston Blumenthal.

The research revealed that each region in the UK has its own unique taste dialect of flavours. For example, nearly a third of people who were asked preferred foods traditional to the south west, especially Cheddar cheese and Devonshire cream teas.

Findings also revealed that the Scots are the slowest eaters and prefer Yorkshire pudding and Italian ice cream to haggis and kippers.

The south and south east, which have a huge variety of cultural influences, had the least-defined taste dialect of all the regions, and people from the north east look for tastes that offer immediate satisfaction, claimed the report.

"Just as with spoken dialects, where accent is placed on different syllables and vowel formations, people from different regions have developed enhanced sensitivities to certain taste sensations and seek foods that trigger these," said Taylor.