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Writer's pictureFood & Drinks Tips Team

THE FIVE TASTES OF FOOD

Updated: Feb 3

Do you know the difference between the tastes of food? This topic is crucial for the understanding of what we eat and make it possible to enjoy meals more carefully.


Taste is a result of a chemical reaction between the food and taste buds. To identify taste, three of the five senses are used: taste, smell, and touch. 80% of the taste in our mouth comes from smell, which is why it's harder to perceive when you have a cold.


There are five recognized tastes and three sensations complement them. And each taste is identified in a specific part of the tongue.


five tastes in the mouth

At the back of the tongue, there are more bitter receptors detecting a substance called quinine. Children dislike vegetables with this taste, but it's our palate protecting them. In nature, toxic plants are often bitter. Tannins are consistently associated with a bitter taste, prominent in dry wines and many plants (as a defense against predators).


Certain vegetables, like spinach, eggplant, sweet potatoes, and various legumes such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils, leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth due to phytates, antinutrients. To remove them, soak in 1L water with 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lime juice for 8 hours. Discard the water, rinse the food, and cook as usual. If needed, change the soaking water for an extended period.


Evolutionary heritage also shields us from sour foods, detected mainly on the sides of the tongue, due to the presence of acidic elements. In nature, sourness corresponds to unripe or spoiled foods caused by enzymes. This taste is often associated with vinegar (used in many pickles) and citric acid (rich in Vitamin C, found in fruits).


boy making a lemon grimace

Sweetness sensors, primarily on the tip of the tongue, react to sugar molecules. Our preference for this taste is evolutionarily explained: sweetness equals essential energy for the body.


The concentration of taste buds for detecting the saltiness of salty foods is higher on the sides and the tip of the tongue. The salty taste is associated with the kitchen ingredient Salt that is actually Sodium Chloride, a mineral salt.


When we sweat, we lose essential minerals, so the preference for this taste is linked to the need to replenish Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Iodine, Zinc, Selenium, Fluoride. Our preference for this taste is theoretically linked to the need to replenish these salts we lost through sweating.


There's also a fifth taste, umami, detected across the entire tongue. The word umami comes from Japanese, meaning savory. The japanese researcher Kikunae Ikeda discovered specific receptors on taste buds for glutamic acid, giving rise to the fifth taste.


Glutamic acid gives rise to monosodium glutamate, a neurotoxin found in various processed foods. This product is a type of salt industrially produced through the fermentation of sugarcane and similar raw materials. The bacteria used in this process convert sugar into glutamic acid, and by adding a sodium ion, monosodium glutamate is formed. Monosodium Glutamate is also known as INS-621 or MSG. It is considered a neurotoxin and it is present in a large portion of processed foods as a food addictive to enhance flavor.


On its own, umami is a dense, lingering, and velvety taste. Describing Umami is challenging as it's usually associated with other flavors, enhancing them. It can be identified in tomato sauce, seaweed, cheeses and mushrooms. Can you believe that some scientists are considering the existence of a sixth taste??


When you eat a piece of fatty meat or taste the olive oil in a salad, or even when you just eat a slice of bread with butter., which of the five tastes is present?


butter melting on corn
Picture by Francesco Tonelli

According to some articles published in academic journals, such as the Australian journal Flavour, fat is detected by taste buds in a isolated way from other flavors. Some argue that it is the sixth taste, called Oleogustus.


It can be sensed around the center of the tongue. However, in the traditional theory of tastes, fat is considered just a component that can lean towards the salty, sweet, or umami side. We think fat hits different, don't you?



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