Welcome to the Taste Lab!
The Imagination Institute has been doing pioneering research at Epcot since 1994
If you’ve gone on a tour of the Institute, you might have passed by the Taste Lab. And visiting today you’re in luck. The Taste Lab staff have undertaken a new initiative to discover the most imaginative and delicious food combinations out there! And you can be a part!
A project like this is no small task. A claim like the most imaginative combination ever requires data. And a large sample size is the first key to great data! In fact, they need a sample so large, the taste lab has had to hastily relocate outside the institute to accommodate all the tasters. And they need your help by volunteering to be one!
On Today’s Tasting Agenda: Chicken Nuggets and Soda.
To the side of the imagination pavilion, nestled into the hillside, we see a boxy concrete and aluminum structure with a cluster of antennas on the hastily built truss above it. All point directly towards the Imagination Institute, radioing their data back. A large mystery vat sticks out on one end, a tangle of pipes flowing to it. Attached to it, a long array of clear tubes bubble, each with a different gem-colored liquid inside flowing through industrial pipes back into the building. We approach a sign that reads “Taste Subjects Needed” and enter a queue that wraps around the building past a preview of the food experiments being run today.
A lab assistant directs us to an “experiment registration” kiosk where we can input our name and customize our experimentation combinations (place our order). On the touchscreen we see a one page grid where we can choose our texture and flavor variables for each order and how many drinks we want to sample. Once finished the kiosk prints a “record card” and we move to a waiting area. The record card contains handy fun facts about the science behind each of the options we’ve chosen. A large LED matrix covers the front wall of the Taste Lab directly above a series of small corrugated sliding doors. When our order is ready our name and order number appear on the matrix directly above our door. We scan our order card (or magic band) and the door automagically whispers open revealing an experiment prepared just for us.
As we turn the corner we approach an odd assortment of pipes flowing with gem-colored liquids - each a new libation dreamed up by the mad scientists at the taste lab. Having received empty cups, we walk towards it: where tantalizingly novel refreshment awaits.
If we like, after enjoying our meal we can approach an experiment survey station, scan our card, input what we thought and suggest new flavors to try! Of course, if we’re using magic bands, there’s a (Play Disney Parks) app for that! It automatically pulls up our order for us.
