Taste

Say you’re eating an ice cream cone, and I ask you what the flavour is, what would you say? Well chocolate, vanilla, strawberry – these are all familiar flavours. But what if I ask you what it tastes like, how is that different?

Flavour is actually our overall impression of the food, and our brains arrive at the impression of the flavour by smelling it, tasting it, and even feeling the texture of it in our mouths. Taste is just what our tongue picks up.

Experts agree that there are five basic tastes our taste buds can recognise:

1. Sweet
2. Salty
3. Sour
4. Bitter
5. Umami

So in the case of the ice cream cone, you might say it tastes sweet and the flavour is chocolate.

There is a common misconception that there are specific areas on your tongue where you could sense the different tastes, but the truth is that you can actually taste all tastes on all parts of your tongue.

In order to detect the taste you need moisture in your mouth, like the saliva that is naturally occurring:

• Try putting a little bit of salt or sugar on your dry tongue and see if you can detect the taste.
• Now take a sip of water and try again.
• Do you taste the difference?

Now let’s dive a little deeper and take a closer look at each of the five tastes.

Sweet

We’re all familiar with sweet, right? Is it your favourite taste?

• One reason that may be is because sweetness actually triggers our brains to release endorphins, making us feel happy.
• But too much sweetness can be overwhelming to our taste buds and to our bodies.
  • For example, if you’ve ever experienced what they call a ‘sugar crash’, when you get sleepy after eating tons of candy sweet.
• Recipes are often best when they include some of the other tastes balance the sweetness
  • Dessert recipes are often improved by adding a pinch of salt. This is why so many people love salted caramel sauce over ice cream.
• A hint of sweetness can also add complexity to savoury recipes.
  • Mexican moles and chilies often use chocolate to brighten the flavours of the dish and counterbalance the spiciness.

Salt

Salt brings out the flavour of foods and our taste buds love salt.

• It is one of the flavours we often crave – just think about your favourite snack foods.
• Salt is a necessary ingredient in making every meal we eat tasty.
  • Have you ever had a BLT sandwich? Imagine it without the salty bacon.
• When we’re disappointed that our meal doesn’t have enough flavour, all that is needed is a pinch of salt
  • On the other hand adding too much salt can overwhelm and ruin a dish.

Sour

When we think about sour ingredients, they all have a common trait: acidity.

• Mouth puckering acidity we get from lemons and vinegar is also what can brighten and lighten recipes.
• Picture a Caesar salad with that delicious creamy dressing – a squeeze of lemon can really make the salad pop with flavour in your mouth.

Bitter

Bitter may be the taste we most have to get used to to appreciate.

• Humans and animals are naturally suspicious of bitter flavours, because bitterness can be a sign of food that is poisonous when found in the wild.
• But many bitter ingredients, like a variety of salad greens, vegetables and nuts, actually have great health benefits
• Bitterness is also important for balancing sweet flavours.
  • Coffee is often added to chocolate desserts to balance the flavour, or served as a beverage alongside a sweet dessert.

Umami

• Umami might be the taste you are least familiar with it is a Japanese word that means a ‘pleasant savoury taste’.
• Umami naturally occurs in foods that are rich in certain amino acids, predominantly glutamate.
• Umami flavours can also be developed using techniques like aging, drying and curing.
  • For example, parmesan is an aged cheese that has great umami flavour.
• Sometimes umami is confused with saltiness, but it has a depth that goes beyond salt – its role is to add a satisfying balance to a dish.

Why does your mouth feel like it’s on fire when you eat a spicy pepper? And how do you soothe the burn? Why does wasabi make your eyes water? And how spicy is the spiciest spice? Let’s back up a bit.

First, what is spiciness?

Even though we often say that something tastes spicy, it’s not actually a taste, like sweet or salty or sour.

• Instead, what’s really happening is that certain compounds in spicy foods activate the type of sensory neurons called polymodal nociceptors.
• You have these all over your body including your mouth and nose, and they’re the same receptors that are activated by extreme heat.
  • So, when you eat a chili pepper, your mouth feels like it’s burning because your brain actually thinks it’s burning.
• The opposite happens when you eat something with menthol in it.
  • The cool, minty compound is activating your cold receptors.
• When these heat-sensitive receptors are activated, your body thinks it’s in contact with a dangerous heat source and reacts accordingly.
  • This is why you start to sweat, and your heart starts beating faster.
• The peppers have elicited the same fight-or-flight response with which your body reacts to most threats.

But you may have noticed that not all spicy foods are spicy in the same way, and the difference lies in the types of compounds involved.

• The capsaicin and piperine, found in black pepper and chili peppers, are made up of larger, heavier molecules called alkylamides, and those mostly stay in your mouth.
• Mustard, horseradish, and wasabi are made up of smaller molecules, called isothiocyanates, that easily float up into your sinuses.
• This is why chili peppers burn your mouth, and wasabi burns your nose.

The standard measure of a food’s spiciness is its rating on the Scoville scale, which measures how much its capsaicin content can be diluted before the heat is no longer detectable to humans.

• A sweet bell pepper gets 0 Scoville heat units, while Tabasco sauce clocks in between 1,200-2,400 units.
• The race to create the hottest pepper is a constant battle, but two peppers generally come out on top:
  • The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
  • The Carolina Reaper
• These peppers measure between 1.5 and 2 million Scoville heat units, which is about half the units found in pepper spray.

So, why would anyone want to eat something that causes such high levels of pain?

• Nobody really knows when or why humans started eating hot peppers.
• Archaeologists have found spices like mustard along with human artefacts dating as far back as 23,000 years ago.
• But they don’t know whether the spices were used for food or medication or just decoration.
• More recently, a 6,000-year-old crockpot, lined with charred fish and meat, also contained mustard.
• One theory says that humans starting adding spices to food to kill off bacteria.
• And some studies show that spice developed mostly in warmer climates where microbes also happen to be more prevalent

But why we continue to subject ourselves to spicy food today is still a bit of a mystery.

• For some people, eating spicy food is like riding rollercoasters; they enjoy the ensuing thrill, even if the immediate sensation is unpleasant.
• Some studies have even shown that those who like to eat hot stuff are more likely to enjoy other adrenaline-rich activities, like gambling.
• The taste for spicy food may even be genetic.

And if you’re thinking about training a bit, to up your tolerance for spice, know this:

• According to some studies, the pain doesn’t get any better. You just get tougher.
• In fact, researchers have found that people who like to eat spicy foods don’t rate the burn any less painful than those who don’t.
• They just seem to like the pain more.

So, torment your heat receptors all you want, but remember, when it comes to spicy food, you’re going to get burned.

Bitter

• Acrid, astringent, harsh, unpalatable, disagreeable.
• Citrus peels, unsweetened cocoa, black coffee, mature leafy greens (such as kale or mustard), or ale

Salt

• Sharp, bite, flavour balance (or under/over balance).
• Both a taste and a substance e.g. table salt

Savoury/umami

• Rich flavour, not unlike salty, depth of flavour (umami translates to ‘delicious’)
• Tomatoes, mushrooms, meat extract, yeast extract, kimchi, cheeses, and soy sauce

Sour

• Tart, acidic, sharp, tangy
• Unripe fruits, vinegar, lemons

Sweet

• Honey, syrups, ripe fruits

• Pleasant, sugary

Coating

• Coats or sticks to the mouth, has viscosity
• Olive oil, creams, cheese, and milk

Contracting

• Pulls your mouth together (puckering)
• Lemon, chilli, sour sweets

Drying

• Decreases the saliva in your mouth, crisp, hard, bite
• Crackers, dry toast

Spicy

• Mint, chillies, mustard seeds

• Causes burning sensation (affects nociceptors)

• Hold your nose closed

• What is the primary ‘taste’ (bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami/savoury)?
  • What are the ‘properties’ of that taste?
  • Are there any other tastes you can sense?
  • Are they pleasant or unpleasant?

• What is the primary ‘mouth feel’?
  • Are there are other mouth feel qualities?
  • Are they pleasant or unpleasant?
• What are the textures?
  • Does this change as you chew/consume it?
  • Do you feel the temperature of it, internally, as it moves towards your stomach?
  • Are they pleasant or unpleasant?

• What is the temperature?
  • Is it pleasant or unpleasant?
  • Does the temperature change as it sits in your mouth?
  • Do you feel the temperature of it, internally, as it moves towards your stomach?

• What sounds does it make as you consume it?
  • Do the sounds change as you continue to chew it?
  • Are they pleasant or unpleasant?

• What colour(s) is it?
• What is the shape/consistency?
  • Are there any ‘flaws’ (pits, bruising)
  • Is it served in a certain vessel?
  • Does it look ‘safe’ to consume?
• Is it pleasant or unpleasant to look at?
  • Do those colours make you associate it with specific flavours?
  • Does it make the food/drink look appetising?

• Do you notice any smells?
  • How do they change the perception of the ‘taste’?
  • Are they pleasant or unpleasant?