Can Aroma Make Foods Taste Sweeter With Less Sugar

Cutting sugar is easy on paper. In real food, it can be surprisingly hard.

When sugar is reduced, a product may become less sweet and less enjoyable. Consumers may then prefer the original, higher-sugar version.

One promising idea comes from the way the brain builds flavor. Research suggests that certain aromas, including vanilla, honey, banana, jasmine, rose, and some fruit aromas, may make foods and drinks seem sweeter, even when the sugar level goes down.

This is known as aroma-induced sweetness enhancement. It does not mean smell literally turns into sugar. It means the brain may use familiar aroma cues to shape how sweet something seems.

Can aroma help us enjoy less sugar without making food feel less enjoyable?

Sweet-associated aromas may shape how the brain reads flavor.

Flavor is built by more than the tongue

Sweetness begins with taste receptors on the tongue, but flavor does not stop there. When people say a food tastes like strawberry, vanilla, honey, or banana, much of that experience comes from smell.

That is why flavor can be described as a combined experience:

Taste + smell + texture = overall flavor experience

The tongue detects basic tastes such as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The nose adds aromatic detail. Texture adds creaminess, crunch, thickness, or smoothness. The brain then folds these signals into one impression.

A 2026 scientific review by Tan and Pang examined research on this phenomenon and concluded that aroma-based sweetness enhancement has promising potential as one strategy for reducing sugar while maintaining perceived sweetness.

However, the effect depends on many factors, including the aroma, food, sugar concentration, culture, and individual consumer.

What research says about aroma and sweetness

Here are several important examples.

1. Jasmine ,Rose and Lavender: Results for Green Tea

A particularly interesting 2026 study investigated whether floral aromas could help reduce sugar in sweetened green tea.

Researchers tested beverages containing **jasmine, rose, or lavender aroma** at three sugar levels:

- 100% of the reference sugar level

- 80% of the reference sugar level

- 70% of the reference sugar level

The drinks were evaluated by **182 participants**.

Jasmine aroma helped maintain perceived sweetness and overall liking with sugar reduced by as much as 30%.**

In other words, jasmine-flavored green tea containing only 70% of the reference sugar could still maintain consumer acceptance under the conditions tested.

This does **not** mean that smelling jasmine automatically causes a person to consume 30% less sugar. Rather, it suggests that jasmine aroma could potentially help manufacturers formulate certain tea beverages with less sugar without proportionally sacrificing sweetness and enjoyment

Rose aroma helped maintain sweetness perception and overall liking with approximately 20% sugar reduction.

Lavender provided only limited sweetness enhancement.

One possible explanation discussed by the researchers is cultural familiarity.

Lavender is not familiar flavors in tea and beverages in many Asian markets.

2. Five aromas at three sucrose concentrations.

(Vanilla, honey, banana, elderflower, and raspberry)

Interestingly, the sweetness-enhancing effect was stronger at the lower and medium sucrose concentrations than at the highest concentration.

In descriptive sensory testing, vanilla, honey, and banana were associated with greater perceived sweetness than elderflower and raspberry.

However, the exact results varied according to the sensory evaluation method.

It reminds us that aroma-induced sweetness enhancement is not an absolute property of an ingredient.

The result can change depending on:

- sugar concentration,

- aroma concentration,

- food or beverage type,

- testing methodology,

- cultural familiarity

3. Vanilla in Milk Desserts: Can We Reduce Sugar and Still Keep Consumers Happy?

10% reduction in sugar did not cause significant changes in sensory and hedonic perception

At much larger sugar reductions, increasing vanilla aroma increased perceived sweetness. Particularly promising results when **vanilla aroma and starch concentration were adjusted together.

4. Vanilla in Reduced-Sugar Desserts for Children

researchers compared a control dessert containing 12% added sugar with reduced-sugar desserts containing 7% added sugar, while changing vanilla and starch concentrations.

A total of 112 children aged 8–12 participated.

Remarkably, the reduced-sugar samples did not significantly differ from the control in their average overall liking scores. Increasing vanilla and starch also increased overall liking among more than 80% of the children.

5. Pandan , Aroma in Southeast Asian cultures sweets and beverage

The characteristic pandan aroma is strongly influenced by a volatile compound called

2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP). A 2026 review discusses pandan's nutritional properties, phytochemicals, aroma metabolism, and possible functional-food applications. The authors note indications that pandan volatiles may interact with appetite and metabolic pathways.

Current evidence is not strong enough to say that pandan aroma itself allows a specific percentage of sugar reduction while maintaining sweetness.

Pandan currently be considered an interesting candidate for future research, aroma metabolism, and possible functional-food rather than a proven sugar-reduction aroma.

The goal is not necessarily to make food taste less enjoyable.

It may be to use sensory science to create: **Less sugar, with more of the experience we enjoy.**

References and Further Reading

Surya, R., Tedjakusuma, F., Subali, D., & Nugroho, D. (2026). Sweetness Reduction in Green-Tea Beverages Using Floral Aroma: A Sensory Approach. Beverages, 12(4), 39.Read the full open-access study

Bertelsen, A. S., Mielby, L. A., Alexi, N., Byrne, D. V., & Kidmose, U. (2020). Sweetness Enhancement by Aromas: Measured by Descriptive Sensory Analysis and Relative to Reference Scaling. Chemical Senses, 45(4), 293–301.Read the PubMed record

Alcaire, F., Antúnez, L., Vidal, L., Giménez, A., & Ares, G. (2017). Aroma-related cross-modal interactions for sugar reduction in milk desserts: Influence on consumer perception. Food Research International, 97, 45–50.Read the article

Tan, Y., & Pang, X. (2026). Olfactory–gustatory cross-modal integration: mechanisms of aroma-induced sweetness enhancement, sensory evaluation methodologies, neuroimaging evidence and advances in influencing factors. Journal of Advanced Research, 84, 73–93.Read the open-access review

Wang, W. et al. (2024). Botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and applications of Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.: A review. Fitoterapia, 177, 106144.Read the PubMed record

Pandan functional-food review (2026). Nutritional and functional innovations of Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.: From aroma to health-promoting bioactive.Read the PubMed record