FIVE TASTES
All over the tongue
Taste cells respond to sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. The US NIDCD says the different types are scattered throughout the tongue, not in separate zones.
Test a biteStart
THE SCIENCE OF TASTE
Five tastes,
one delicious bite.
Taste is only part of flavour.
Your tongue picks out at least five basic tastes. Smell, texture, temperature and the burn of chilli join in, and together they tell you whether a bite is delicious.
FIVE TASTESplus smell and touch
Test a biteKeep in mind
- Sweet, sour, salty
- Bitter and umami
- Smell does the rest
- Taste plus aroma is flavour
THE SHORT ANSWER
The tongue tastes,
the nose flavours.
Five basic tastes on the tongue.
Everything else comes from smell and touch.
UMAMI
The savoury fifth
Umami is the taste of glutamate, found in broths, meat and some cheeses. It was identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, from kombu seaweed broth.
Where umami came from
NOT A TASTE
Chilli burns, mint cools
Chilli heat is a pain and heat signal from capsaicin, and the coolness of mint comes from nerve endings, not taste cells.
See the numbersA QUICK BITE TEST
Is it taste,
or something else?
Pick a sensation to see where it really comes from. The bar shows how much of it is down to the taste cells in your mouth.
Based on InformedHealth.org (IQWiG) and the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
Thousands of buds,
dozens of bitter alarms.
One figure on how many taste buds adults have,
one on how many ways we sense bitterness.
2,000–4,000
Taste buds in an adult
InformedHealth.org says adults have between 2,000 and 4,000 taste buds, each with 10 to 50 sensory cells, and the sensory cells are renewed about once a week.
TASTE BUDS · INFORMEDHEALTH.ORG
≈ 35 types
Proteins that respond to bitter
There are about 35 different proteins in taste cells that respond to bitter substances, which may reflect the many bitter, sometimes poisonous, plants our ancestors met.
BITTER · INFORMEDHEALTH.ORG
The back of the tongue is very sensitive to bitter tastes, InformedHealth.org notes, apparently so we can spit out spoiled or poisonous food before swallowing.
FOUR THINGS TO TRY AT THE TABLE
Taste it,
then smell it.
Small kitchen experiments that show taste and flavour working together. They only need what is already in the cupboard.
Step 1
Pinch your nose
Eat a piece of fruit with your nose pinched, then let go. Much of the flavour arrives once the aroma can reach your nose.
Step 2
Taste the whole tongue
Touch a little sugar or salt to the tip, sides and back. All parts can sense every basic taste.
Step 3
Pair umami foods
Combine glutamate-rich foods with mushrooms or fish, like kombu with bonito in Japanese dashi, for a fuller savoury taste.
Step 4
Notice the mix
Most dishes combine tastes, sweet and sour or salty and savoury. Try naming each basic taste in your next mouthful.
WHERE UMAMI CAME FROM
A Tokyo broth,
a fifth taste.
In 1908 Kikunae Ikeda of the University of Tokyo found that glutamate gave kombu seaweed broth a taste distinct from sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and named it umami. A disciple found another umami substance, IMP, in dried bonito flakes in 1913.
In 1957 Akira Kuninaka found GMP in shiitake mushrooms and showed that combining glutamate with these substances tastes stronger than either alone. Umami was recognised as the scientific term at the first Umami International Symposium in 1985.
Questions
Questions on the way
Is the tongue map true?
No. The idea that each part of the tongue tastes one thing came from a misreading of a 1901 German paper. All parts of the tongue can sense every basic taste, though sensitivity differs a little.
What does umami taste like?
It is often compared to the taste of a meat broth. It comes mainly from glutamate, found in foods such as ripe tomatoes, meat, cheese and chicken broth.
Why does food taste bland with a cold?
Much of flavour comes from aroma reaching the nose from the back of the mouth. When the nose is blocked, foods tend to taste bland, the NIDCD explains.
Is spicy a taste?
Strictly speaking, no. Chilli heat is a pain and heat signal triggered by capsaicin and carried by nerves for temperature and touch.
Is there a sixth taste?
Research is ongoing. InformedHealth.org says there are probably sensory cells that respond to fat, and scientists are also studying tastes such as alkaline, metallic and watery.
Destination