Doncaster pop star Louis Tomlinson "tastes of orange juice and tomatoes," says man with rare health condition

Doncaster One Direction star Louis Tomlinson tastes of orange juice and tomatoes, according to a man with a rare health condition that confuses his hearing with his tastebuds.
Louis Tomlinson has the taste of orange juice and tomatoes.Louis Tomlinson has the taste of orange juice and tomatoes.
Louis Tomlinson has the taste of orange juice and tomatoes.

James Wannerton, who suffers from synaesthesia, an unusual condition that means when a certain celebrity name is mentioned, he gets a certain taste in his mouth, says the Doncaster pop heart-throb has a taste of "tomato skins in weak orange juice."

In a test conducted by The Sun, James, of the UK Synaesthesia Association was presented with a list of various star names and asked wjat they "tasted like."

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Synaesthesia is a condition where a sensation in one of the senses, such as hearing, triggers a sensation in another, such as taste.

But it’s not just that combination of senses that can become interconnected, in its most common form people with Synaesthesia hear sounds and associate them with colours.

He told the newspaper: “Every time I hear a sound, the taste associated with that sound comes into my mouth and some are stronger than others.

“When I was a youngster I would go to school on the tube and as I was learning to read I would say the station names out loud.

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“As I said them I would get a taste in my mouth and I wrote these things down.”

“They are always the same the tastes I had as a four year old are exactly the same now, it never changes.

He also says that Holly Willoughby has a "vegetable texture like a thick cactus leaf which is bitter to the taste" while Danny Dyer tastes of "salty ham and very fine sawdust."

Daniella Westbrook reminds him of thick ham and After Eight mints and singer Ed Sheeran of lemonade and thin dark chocolate and pine nuts.

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The flavours James experiences are based on the phonetics of the word he’s hearing.

He explained: “What I pick up on are consonant sounds and contrasting sounds, a consonant will have a bigger taste than a vowel.

A wide range of different synaesthetic experiences have been reported and recorded – a classic example is someone who experiences the colour red when they hear the word “Monday”

More information on synaesthesia is available HERE