Bite into a gooey candy bar, and what mouth sensations do you experience? Mmmm ... chewy, sweet, creamy--with the signature, slightly bitter richness of chocolate as you close your mouth to swallow and the aroma wafts up into your nasal passages. Indeed, smell is an important component of flavor, as anyone with a severe head cold can testify.

ANATOMY OF TASTE shows the four types of projections called papillae on the human tongue. Only the circumvallate, foliate and fungiform papillae bear taste buds (see diagrams below).

Flavor is a complex mixture of sensory input composed of taste (gustation), smell (olfaction) and the tactile sensation of food as it is being munched, a characteristic that food scientists often term "mouthfeel." Although people may use the word "taste" to mean "flavor," in the strict sense it is applicable only to the sensations arising from specialized taste cells in the mouth. Scientists generally describe human taste perception in terms of four qualities: saltiness, sourness, sweetness and bitterness. Some have suggested, however, that other categories exist as well--most notably umami, the sensation elicited by glutamate, one of the 20 amino acids that make up the proteins in meat, fish and legumes. Glutamate also serves as a flavor enhancer in the form of the additive monosodium glutamate (MSG).

This article was originally published with the title Making Sense of Taste.

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