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Exploring how our nose and mouth work together to create the experience of flavor.
Have you ever wondered why your favorite pizza tastes like plain cardboard when you have a stuffy nose?
Your tongue is covered in tiny bumps called taste buds. These buds are like little detectives that can only find five specific clues. These clues are the five basic tastes: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, and Umami (a savory taste, like broth). If you only used your tongue, every candy would just taste 'sweet' and every chip would just taste 'salty.' You wouldn't be able to tell if the candy was strawberry or orange flavor!
Quick Check
If you are eating a plain pretzel, which of the 5 basic tastes are you mostly using?
Answer
Salty
1. Hold your nose tightly so you can't breathe through it. 2. Put a fruit-flavored jelly bean in your mouth and chew. 3. Notice that it just tastes 'sweet' (this is the Taste). 4. Let go of your nose while still chewing. 5. Suddenly, you 'taste' the cherry or lime! (This is the Flavor).
Quick Check
What is the difference between 'taste' and 'flavor'?
Answer
Taste is just what the tongue detects (like sweet or salty), while flavor is the combination of taste and smell together.
When you have a cold, your nose gets filled with mucus. This creates a 'roadblock' for the food molecules. They can't reach the smell sensors at the top of your nose. Because the 'Smell' part of our equation is missing, the 'Flavor' part disappears too! Your tongue is still working fine, so you can tell if your soup is salty, but you can't tell it's chicken soup because the aroma is blocked.
Imagine you have a stuffy nose. You eat a bowl of vegetable soup. 1. Your tongue detects the salt (). 2. Your tongue detects the heat of the broth. 3. Because the nose is blocked, the 'Vegetable' aroma is . 4. Result: The soup tastes like warm, salty water.
Which of these is NOT one of the 5 basic tastes detected by the tongue?
Food molecules travel from the back of your throat to your nose to help you perceive flavor.
Why does an apple taste 'bland' when you have a cold?
Review Tomorrow
Tomorrow at lunch, try to identify which of the 5 basic tastes are in your food before you focus on the flavor.
Practice Activity
Try the 'Nose-Plug Challenge' with a friend using different fruits to see if you can guess the fruit using only your tongue!