Tactile-gustatory and tactile-olfactory synesthesia

Alternative names are touch-taste and touch-smell (or touch-to-taste and touch-to-smell)

These types of synesthesia consist of experiencing taste or smell sensations triggered by the sense of touch. They can be a response to one of two types of stimulus: either touching certain textures, or being touched. They are very uncommon types. According to Sean Day's study with data on 1,143 synesthetes, 1.14% of them report touch-taste experiences and just 0.35% touch-smell.

However, olfactory or gustatory imagination (hyperphantasia), and not synesthesia, can often be the reason for this kind of experiences

It's important to note that in order for these perceptions to be considered synesthesia, they would have to be experienced with a range of different textures or various different types of touch sensation. Occasional (or just one-off) experiences of tasting or smelling objects that are touched or of perceiving a sudden smell or taste when somebody or something touches you wouldn't be considered synesthesia. If you are a tactile-gustatory or tactile-olfactory synesthete, you would probably have noticed these sensations for most of your life, and even if you didn't experience them strongly every single time they would take the form of automatic, consistent pairings between types of touch or texture and specific taste or smell perceptions. So, to give a couple of examples, the texture of denim might always be associated with a taste of apples, or of cardboard perhaps, or being touched on different specific parts of your body would generally produce different but consistent smells such as a smell of strawberries each time someone ruffles your hair or a smell of biscuits in the oven when you receive a hug. The real-life examples quoted below give an indication of how this type of synesthesia works.

Also, if the smell or taste perceived is the logical smell or taste that the object you are touching would be likely to have (a dusty old curtain would smell musty, for example), then what is happening is probably a spontaneous mental recreation of the smell or taste of that object or texture, and not synesthesia. Many people experience this occasionally and the perception can in fact be very strong, like a real smell or taste. Some terms used for this are "olfactory imagination", "olfactorization" and "olfactory hyperphantasia" for smells, and "gustatory imagination" and "gustatory hyperphantasia" for tastes. There is more information on this interesting phenomenon on the Smelling images. Tasting images page, as it can happen sometimes when looking at a picture of a texture or object as well as on touching it.        

Here are some descriptions written by people with tactile-gustatory and tactile-olfactory synesthesia:

Touch-taste

Two synesthetes who perceive taste sensations on touching things:

“Touching certain textures is revoltingly terrible- can taste like terrible foods, while other ones are quite lovely.

A particular favorite of mine is soft yarn tastes warm and sweet? Kind of like fresh cup cakes out of the oven. It drove me to be an avid crocheter. Touching my own upper arms tastes like saltines. The fabric on the mattress I had growing up was blue cheesish? Yeasty and cheesy and absolutely revolting.”

(Source: This post on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)

“I experience tastes whenever I come in physical contact with anything. For example, my phone screen or anything glassy for that matter tastes like dark cherries.”

(Question: If you touch two different things at once, do you taste both? what does cat fur taste like when you touch it?)

“Yes, I taste them both but they do not mix. I taste them both separately. And cats tend to taste like peanut butter.

I absolutely despise the exterior of jeans. They taste like raw fish.”

(Source: This post and comments on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2018.)

A synesthete who perceives taste sensations (together with colour) on being touched:

“I've always had colors associated with touch. (…)

It's most intense with light touch. On the top of my head, it's normally a rainbow of pastel colours (…). I also associate it with the taste of Smarties candies in the US. (…)

Throughout my body, it's similar to the colors when touched on my face, but it's a rainbow of colors. On the back of my body, it has that dark background and reminds me of the taste of jawbreakers at times."

(Source: This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2022.)

Touch-smell

"For example, if someone touches my arm, it's a floral smell. But if someone touches my chest, it's the smell of warm clothes."

(Source: This post on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2018.)

A case of acquired tactile-gustatory synesthesia

This article The Bitter Touch: Acquired Tactile-Gustatory Synesthesia (Cambridge University Press) describes a case study of a person who spontaneously developed what could be considered a form of tactile-gustatory synesthesia after experiencing a schizoaffective disorder. It discusses the possible neurological reasons for these perceptions.

This page last updated: 16 April 2026