As beloved children, Swiss cheese makers are related to the products produced. So, one of them, Beat Wampfler, includes music to cheeses during their ripening – hits Led Zeppelin and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as techno music and works by Mozart.
Whim? Not at all. This “concern” has a completely scientific explanation. Sonochemistry is the name of a field in science that studies the effect of sound waves on liquids. It has already been proven that sound waves can compress and expand liquids during a chemical reaction. And since sound is an invisible wave, it can travel through a solid liquid like cheese, creating bubbles. These bubbles can subsequently change the chemistry of the cheese as they expand, collide, or collapse.
It is this effect that Beat Wampfler is counting on when he turns on the music to the cheesy heads. The cheese maker wants to prove that the bacteria responsible for the formation of the taste of cheese are influenced not only by humidity, temperature and nutrients, but also by various sounds, ultrasounds and music. And Beat hopes that the music will improve the ripening process and make the cheese tastier.
It will be possible to verify this already in March this year. Beat Wampfler plans to bring together a group of cheese tasting experts to determine which cheese is the best.
Just think, what opportunities will we have if this experiment is successful? We will be able to select cheeses according to our own musical tastes. We can compare cheeses grown to the classics with cheeses influenced by electronic music, right down to a wide variety of musical styles and performers.