IT is a move which will have whisky traditionalists fuming over their dram - and it could only happen in that home for hipsters, London's Shoreditch.

The latest cool way to sample Scotland's national drink is using a multi-sensory "theatre" experience - involving sights, sounds and smells - to improve the taste.

Research has found that consuming the same whisky in different environments can influence the rating of the drink by up to 20%.

The first whisky theatre is being piloted in London's boho Shoreditch, and combines sampling the drink with different music, smells and backgrounds, which could be expanded to Scotland and beyond.

It is a part of a trend of using shapes, colours and sounds to improve the taste of food and drink, being used by some top restaurants.

Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, who carried out the study on whisky, said it was a relatively new field of research.

"It stems from the observation that many people have - when they go on holiday and are sitting in the Mediterranean the food tastes great," he said. "But when they bring the wine or the cheese or the sausage or something back, it is very often a disappointment."

The research into whisky, published in the journal Flavour, involved participants sampling the drink in three different rooms - a grassy room which had a turf laid on the floor, green lights, deckchairs and a freshly cut grass smell; a sweet room which had a bowl of red fruits, red lights and the sounds of tinkling bells; and a woody room, which had wood panels, a bench and the sound of a crackling fireplace.

It found the rating of the whisky changed by 10% to 20% depending on the room they were in, with most participants preferring the whisky in the "woody" room."

Spence said more top restaurants were using lighting, smell and images to enhance the experience.

Ultraviolet, an "immersive dining" restaurant which opened in Shanghai last year, is well known for its British fish and chips "experience".

Spence said: "They are projecting British flags onto the table-top, they have got pictures of wet rainy windows on the wall, they are playing the Beatles and spritzing smells in the room, like vinegar.

"That is just starting now in a number of top restaurants around the world and I am sure that is going to percolate down."

The whisky theatre was set up by drinks giant Diageo in the Worship Street Whistling Shop pub in Shoreditch. Diageo's Singleton whisky was used for the experiment which employs everything from images of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland to chanting and house music to create an atmosphere.

A spokeswoman for Diageo said they were looking at expanding the "multi-sensory" whisky tasting experiences in Scotland and around the world based on feedback from the events.

Russell Jones, creative director of sensory branding agency Condiment Junkie, which helped create the rooms for the whisky research, said: "It is a new wave in the branding and marketing approach - as visual branding came in 20 or 30 years ago, now sensory branding is coming in."

But he pointed out that the findings could also be used by people at home, with suggestions including using a round glass to bring out the sweetness in a drink or dimming the lights to bring out the woody flavours in a whisky.

Jones added: "I love the idea of people thinking more about the sounds and everything about their environment."