The main findings of the present review are summarized in Fig. 1.
At least two components appear to contribute consistently to refreshing perception: energizing and thirst-quenching, which is
intimately related to mouth wetting. These two aspects can, on their
turn, be related to sensory properties of food products i.e. cold (from
cooling compounds or temperature), sour and liquid. While, thirstquenching
is generally produced by liquid foods, mouth wetting
depends on all three sensory dimensions, because acid foods trigger
saliva secretion as well as cold perception. The energizing aspect as
discussed in Section 3.3 could be mediated by coldness via trigeminal
cold receptor activation by low temperature and cooling compounds.
On their turn, each of these sensory and physical properties can be
related to specific products that are likely to be perceived as
refreshing. In addition, these products may have other sensory
properties that are not logically linked to any of the experiential
aspects of refreshing perception, but may become associated with
refreshing through repeated exposure. These could include clear
appearance, orange and brown color, and citrus olfactory perception.
For instance, as regards to the colors associated with refreshing
perception, some authors have found that clear beverages were
perceived as being the most refreshing, whereas other authors have
found that brown ones were the most refreshing. Associations
between refreshing perception and colors are likely to be learned
over time, due to repeated exposure to refreshing products, and are
not directly linked to refreshing perception through the logical links in
the upper part of the association map. Therefore, differences in
outcomes between studies may be understood by pointing out the
differences in accidental learning processes between different
cultures, or by revealing differences in experimental procedure that
may have increased the accessibility for some products in the
participants' memories. Regarding mint odor it is not clear today if
this olfactory stimulation has a refreshing impact through mental
energy enhancement or through associative learning to the cold
trigeminal dimension of mint-like compounds.