The 5 Flavors: Do You Know the Different Types of Taste?
Lick it before you click it. That’s not a typo; it’s sage advice for this quiz. Heed it by getting your mind out of the gutter and into the gourmet! This quiz examines your knowledge of the basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Show what you know from those cooking shows.
We assure you this quiz deals with chocolate bars more than rap bars, despite that last sentence’s rhyme scheme. We will, however, be dropping science. Believe it or not, there’s more to salt taste than sodium. Sourness isn’t strictly a part of feelings or fruit. The same holds true for sweetness. Bitterness runs deeper than getting a divorce or dark chocolate. This might be the first time you’ve encountered the word umami.
Do you know what makes each basic taste unique beyond the intuition of your taste sensation? If you don’t, you will after taking this quiz.
Types of Taste
Types of taste contain a "sweet" science regarding each flavor that allows us to digest the unique sensation of all five. Much of that science traces back to when parsley ranked above pizza in dietary delight. Taste aided early humanity in determining whether food was poisonous or palatable. Sweet and saltiness acted as a green light for consuming green plants and other foods. Conversely, a bitter and/or sour taste warned the brain of poisonous plants or protein-packed food that was rotting. In fact, many bitter compounds are toxic.
As blind taste tests evolved to big textbooks, the science of taste is well-understood. G protein-coupled receptors detect three of the basic tastes as well as regulating senses of sight and smell. The latter links with taste to the central nervous system, which also manages human emotion. That fact is why a bad taste or odor causes the potential for vomiting. Taste sensations adapt to easily spot what is far better. A salty sense of taste comes from sodium chloride receptors that are the simplest taste receptor in the mouth.
