Mouthfeel
Etymology
A 20th-century English compound of "mouth" plus "feel," coined by food scientists and the drinks industry to isolate texture as a distinct dimension of eating, one that taste vocabulary had no clean word for.
noun · /MOWTH-feel/
The physical texture and bodily sensation of food or drink in the mouth, separate from its taste or smell.
What it names
The creaminess, crunch, fizz, chewiness, or slipperiness that decides whether a food is pleasant long before flavor gets a say.
Example
The oat milk nailed the flavor but the thin, watery mouthfeel gave it away.
Related idea
Complements palate: the palate registers flavor, while mouthfeel registers touch — the two combine into what we loosely call how something “tastes.”