Taste is one of the most basic senses that every one of us has. It provides us one of the simplest yet most important joys in our life. We all know what tastes good and what doesn’t. More often than not, it is what separates a good meal from a bad one.

That said, having a better understanding of how taste works will also give us insight into how we function as people in a broader sense. That is why we have come up with this guide as we delve deeper into the science of taste.

At this point, it is worth stating that taste is an essential component of our life. As you know, it is the greatest factor that defines our connection and our relationship to the food we consume. The word has become synonymous with giving something a try. This should give you an idea of its crucial role in our lives, whether we realize it or not.

Our sense of taste is characterized by the chemical reactions that happen in our mouth during the process of eating. The receptors in your taste buds react to the different chemical components in your food – with the sense of taste being a byproduct of the ensuing reaction.

That said, it may come as a surprise to many that our understanding of how the sense of taste works is still a work in progress. For the longest time, we have been convinced that there were only four taste sensations. Namely, sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. However, as it turns out, there is a fifth taste that has been there all along: umami.

To delve deeper into the matter, we have listed down how the five tastes work:

• Saltiness – This taste is produced when your tongue detects the presence of sodium chloride. The same can also be said for other types of salts albeit to a lesser degree.
• Sourness – This taste is more closely associated with acids. Chemically speaking, the mechanism used to detect sourness is similar to how we detect saltiness.
• Bitterness – Bitterness is the taste mechanism that lies on the other end of the spectrum compared to sourness. This reaction is borne from the presence of bases.
• Sweetness – If we look at it from a more technical perspective, the sweetness of food is connected to the presence of aldehydes and ketones with elements of the carbonyl group present. That said, the sweetness is a reaction to sugars and certain types of proteins.
• Umami – Finally, we have Umami which refers to the savoriness of a particular food. It is also the Japanese word for meaty. To be more precise, umami detects the presence of MSG and other glutamates which can be commonly found in protein-packed foods like meats and cheese.

Of course, such a description would hardly do the sense of taste justice. While we may experience the same thing, our reactions to it will not necessarily be the same every time. This is because our ‘tastes’ and personal preferences are far from objective. Rather, they are also shaped by different aspects of our life – from our cultural origins, ethnic background, family history. Needless to say, this is one of the things that make the study of taste and food incredibly interesting.