IE 1591: Rich or Bland? Band 9 Adjectives to Describe Food on IELTS Speaking

The hosts of IELTS Energy, Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, dive into a high-impact vocabulary session for IELTS Speaking Part 2 and 3, focusing on describing food with Band 9 adjectives. They argue that using generic terms like 'good' or 'bad' won't boost your score—instead, candidates must master nuanced, less common words like 'rich', 'bland', 'savory', 'aromatic', 'juicy', 'tender', and 'overpowering' to stand out. Lindsay shares personal food preferences to demonstrate how these words sound in natural speech, while Aubrey highlights how idiomatic phrases like 'not doing it for me' and 'loaded up with' elevate fluency. The episode reveals that even if you dislike a food, you can still score highly by using sophisticated constructions like 'it doesn’t matter how aromatic it is'—a powerful rhetorical tool that shows lexical range. The hosts emphasize that food topics are low-hanging fruit for high scores because everyone eats, yet most candidates fail to prepare with specific vocabulary. The real game-changer? Avoiding repetition and clichés. Instead of saying 'I don’t like it,' students should use phrases like 'I’ve developed an aversion to' or 'I detest' to convey strong opinions with precision. The episode also subtly teaches how to structure answers with natural transitions—like starting with 'I’m going to have to go with'—to sound fluent and native-like.