Researchers Claim Hip Hop Ages Cheese the Best

In a surprising new study conducted at the Bern University of Arts in Switzerland, researchers exposed nine wheels of Emmental Swiss cheese to various genres of music from hip-hop, rock & roll, to classical music round-the-clock to reveal whether or not different musical genres would affect each cheese wheel’s flavor and aroma. 

Each separate wheel of cheese was placed in its own wooden crate, in the same conditional environment as its counterparts.

Over a period of 6 months, the cheese was exposed 24 hours a day to varying musical types — one was exposed to Tribe Called Quest’s funky jazz-infused cut “Jazz (We’ve Got) Buggin’ Out,” the classical cheese to Mozart’s operatic The Magic Flute, and the rock one jammed-out to Led Zeppelin’s classic “Stairway to Heaven.” The techno fromage thumped to Vril’s “UV,” the ambient to Yello’s melancholic “Monolith,” with the rest relaxing to soundwaves at low, medium, and high frequencies, as well as one left with no sound whatsoever.

In the report, the researchers noted that “the most obvious differences were observed in [the] strength of flavor, smell, and taste,” going on to reveal that “the hip-hop sample topped the list of all cheese exposed to music in terms of fruitiness…[it] was the strongest of these in terms of smell and taste.” Even so, celebrity chef Benjamin Luzuy, who was asked to be a jury member, told Reuters TV that “the differences were very clear, in terms of texture, taste, [and] the appearance.” Overall, the consensus was that hip-hop offered the funkiest flavor and aroma of all the musical options, with cheesemaker Beat Wampfler now hoping to tweak a future experiment to focus holistically on varying hip-hop tracks: “the idea is now to take five or ten cheeses and put hip-hop on them and then compare.”

If you want to check out the study’s accompanying video, head over to the Reuters to learn more.

What do you think of the off-kilter experiment — will you be playing your favorite hip-hop tracks to your favorite type of cheese?

For more related news, Madlib just teased his collaborative project alongside Mac Miller, Maclib.