Predictably, the novel concludes that a combination of the two responses works best.
Similarly, both qualities need to be managed when formulating the taste of a food product. Why does it make such good sense to get taste right? Because if a product pleases consumers' sensibilities, they'll keep coming back for more.
"The main barrier to repeat purchase is taste," Danone's UK marketing manager, Julia Redman, told our sister site FoodManufacture.co.uk in July 2010. The firm had just pulled its Shape Feel Fuller for Longer yogurt because consumers were not coming back for more.
But getting taste right can reap greater financial rewards than ensuring shoppers keep putting their hands in their pockets. Mimicking the taste and flavour of key ingredients can also help manufacturers stabilise their recipe costs in a fluctuating ingredients market.
Synergy, for example, recently responded to the global shortage of coconut milk by formulating a cheaper alternative called Coconut Booster. The object was to produce a coconut milk flavoured powder that can give a product the taste of coconut, without the supply issues.
"Coconut yields are down in some areas by up to 60% where long tropical droughts and late rain have meant crop conditions have been very poor," says Synergy's innovations director Ian Butler. "This effectively means the industry is facing a shortage, which is not only pushing up prices but also means some manufacturers may not be able to use the ingredient at all."
Synergy has been expanding its flavour science and uses gas chromatographymass spectrometry to analyse and capture the compounds that characterise certain foods to create new flavours.
Butler explains: "Some of our key drivers are centred on health and wellness where we continue to develop our understanding to provide solutions. For example, a product that helps reduce salt without compromising on taste would, in theory, be viewed as favourable."
So there is agreement on the rank and importance of taste. But how do you get it right? "Can you make it taste better?" is the question most often asked of Premier Foods' development chef Mark Rigby. He says: "Taste is not just about the flavour. It's about bringing the senses together and, at that one moment, creating an experience that's perfect for that occasion."
Which brings us back to sensibility. And, to get that right, you have to understand the occasion and the consumer. In today's international marketplace this can be a complex task.
Sensory specialist Givaudan worked with consumers across the globe when it was researching its 'TasteEssentials' chicken flavour.
"We were seeking a better consumer and culinary understanding of chicken," says Andreas Haenni, global head of savoury, Givaudan Flavours. "This enabled us to develop a palette of ingredients to create authentic chicken flavours to meet demand in different markets and in a wide range of food products.
"Taste preferences of targeted consumers vary widely from region-to-region, country-to-country and between men and women, young and old," says Haenni. "It is vital, therefore, for the flavourist to, firstly, know which groups of consumers the product is aimed at and, secondly, to understand what will delight their taste buds. The goal is understanding and quantifying the sensory properties of flavours and applications as well as the needs, preferences and choices of consumers."
Synergy's Butler also stresses the importance of knowing your market. The firm is expanding its sensory research on consumers' emotional links with products and targeting certain sectors of the population with specific taste profiles.
"How consumers respond to flavour is linked with their genetic make up," says Butler. "Take the category of the over-65s, which is an important category, considering our ageing population. As we get older, our taste buds fade. So it's important to shift product development for that category accordingly to make bolder and stronger flavour profiles."
Frutarom's creation and application manager, Matthew Stokes, agrees: "I always look at what the product is saying to the consumer. If it's a healthy product, typically, you would expect clean profiles that are subtle and delicate. This is also quite normal for products aimed at the female market. On the other hand, a treat for the weekend or more male-orientated foods will be much more robust and powerful."
It's also important to look at consumer habits. "It's about talking and listening to our customers, because they represent the market's needs," says Butler. "The increase in global travel, for example, has created a demand for more ethnic flavours. The consumer is becoming more experimental and we have to move with that. You have to look at trends such as which types of new restaurant are launching and see where momentum is building. But, ultimately," he concludes, "it's all about delivering great taste."
And great taste cannot be delivered without understanding the flavour's food 'base', or host. "Flavours behave differently depending on the food matrix they are used in and the processing they have to go through," explains Haenni. "For example, a chicken flavour for a seasoned snack that is consumed directly will be created differently to a chicken flavour that is used in an instant noodle, which is prepared with hot water for consumption. The interaction of base ingredients from fat to viscosity to salt content with flavour ingredients greatly affects the way the flavour is developed. Immense technical skill is needed to achieve a balanced flavour that will perform well."
Stokes concurs. "One of the most important aspects of this is to relate the type of consumption experience you are aiming for to the consumer. Are you looking for a fresh, clean profile or perhaps something highly indulgent? If you are going for clean and refreshing then the base should not be too sweet, or where fat is a part of the base, the fat content should be at the lower end. To enhance fresh characteristics, you would go for citrus, raspberry, cranberry or melon, for example. For the more indulgent profile, you could use notes such as vanilla, honey, strawberry, cream or toffee."
Possessing a vast and comprehensive library of ingredients helps. Haenni says: "This enables the flavourist to balance the way a product tastes. For example, taking the sodium out will transform the way in which a product works. There is no way to simply replace sodium with another ingredient one to one, so the product developer/flavourist must be able to use a wide range of ingredients to reduce the sodium and make the product taste great."
To enable its flavourists, customers and consumers to describe and develop flavours more precisely, Givaudan developed its own sensory language for sweetness and saltiness. "Flavours are subjective," says Haennis. "One person's descriptor could be vastly different in meaning to another person's."
Sensibilities again. "A link to a past favourite or something nostalgic always sends a powerful message," says Stokes. "Create a link to a positive memory and you are instantly onto a success. But add a note associated with a bad memory and the project will be immediately rejected."
Like all good stories, the taste of a food should have a beginning, a middle and an end. "Make it too simple and the profile is short-lived leaving the consumer potentially disappointed," says Stokes. "Too complex and each taste blends into the next, giving a generic profile that is not wholly discernable a lot of tropical flavours are generic, non-discernable blends.
"The trick is to get the balance right. Cola is a good example. With a cola, the citrus lifts the front end and provides impact; after a short time, the citrus dies off but then the spice notes come through. Finally, as these diminish, the vanilla cuts in to provide longevity. It's very easy to get the balance of a cola flavour wrong but, get it right, and you have a generally satisfying beverage with broad appeal, so always look for the beginning, middle and end."
So, the story goes, the taste profile has to match the product, the base, the memory, the message and the end consumer. Get these right and you have a great-tasting product.
But the final word must come from Jane Austen. In the pursuit of great taste, the flavourist must demonstrate similar qualities to Marianne Dashwood's suitor, Mr Willoughby. And these are: "an eagerness that shows no moderation, and leaves him no sense of fatigue".