What is taste?

Taste is one of the five senses, the others being sight, smell, touch and hearing. Our chief organ of taste is the tongue, which is covered with tiny cells or taste buds. These react to different tastes and send messages to the brain. You may be surprised to learn the there are in fact only four kinds of taste: sweet, sour salty and bitter. All the flavors we know are a combination of these four.

Just as there are four kinds of taste, so there are four kinds of taste bud, and these are situated in different areas of the tongue. Only the center of the tongue has no buds at all, as you will see is you put a little salt on the middle of your tongue. Experiment with other flavors to find the areas of taste buds on your tongue, and then see how placing an ice cube on your affects your sense of taste.