Day 10: Taste

Tonight Taste Expert Barb Stuckey came and talked to our class about the science of taste. Was FASCINATING. 

• There are generally three types of tasters:
  • Tolerant taster: fewer taste buds, tastes are less extreme to them, so generally less picky
  • Tasters: middle of the pack, most of the population falls into this bucket
  • Hyper tasters: many taste buds, so tastes are much more extreme to them. Generally very picky and very critical.
• The more taste buds you have, the more nerves you have in your mouth (a nerve wraps around every taste bud). So, the more sensitive you are to texture and heat

There are 5 kinds of taste: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter and Umami (savory/ mouthfeel). That’s it - no more!

• Sugar: Our bodies crave this because we know to interpret the taste of sugar as calories and energy.

• Sour: Generally sour is bad. It denotes lack of ripeness, both in being under ripe or overripe. When fruit isn’t ready, it is sour but then it gets sweeter and the nutritional value increases. When it starts to rot, it becomes sour again. But, in small doses, sour adds “freshness” to foods and literally makes food taste better. That’s because the PH of your mouth is around 7. When you eat an acidic/ sour food, it has a lower PH, and causes your mouth to flood with saliva to bring the PH back up to 7. This rush of saliva then allows you to literally taste the food more, thereby making the flavor more intense. A little bit of lemon goes a long way.
• Bitter: denotes medicinal - too much is bad, but a little bit is good for you (e.g., lemon rind)
• Salt: We crave salty because sodium is critical for our survival. It’s Sodium is in every bodily fluid, but isn’t stored anywhere. When you lose fluid, you lose salt. You tend to crave salt if you’re dehydrated. Salt also masks bitterness!

Umami: This taste is generally associated with proteins. You can think of out is a “mouth fullness”, or tastes that coat your mouth like oil. We generally crave this taste because it associated with certain proteins/ essential amino acids that our body can’t produce but rather needs to ingest. MSG is the quintessential umami flavor. The flavor is produced when proteins break apart overtime into glutamates, making it taste savory. (e.g. milk proteins > cheese) Generally, you need time to create this flavor, and it’s produced through ripening, cooking, aging, curing, brewing or fermenting. Ingredients high in umami include:

• Soy sauce
• Tomato paste
• Fish sauce
• Vegemite
• Beef broth
• Miso
• Nori
• Shitake

Senses

• Smell:
  • You can smell through your mouth! Here’s an experiment to try - all you need is a jelly bean.
    • Plug your nose fully, so you can’t breathe through it at all.
    • Put the jelly bean in your mouth and start to chew slowly. It probably tastes good, but a little bit muted
    • Now release your nose and inhale, while chewing. Boom!!!! So much flavor, that was just released because of your sense of smell

• • If butter is unsalted, it has no taste! Perform the same test as the jelly bean. Butter is there for the mouthfeel and the aroma.

• Touch
  • Astringent: We often think of this as a bitter taste, but it’s actually a mouth feel, typically caused by tannins, that simulate the feeling of drying in the mouth.
  • Spice also simulates hot, even though there is no actual temperature change
  • Carbonation - not a tate, but rather the sensation of bubbles on your tongue
  • Menthol - mint is not a taste but rather a combination of taste (sweet) and touch (cooling sensation)

• • These elements are irritants

• Flavor is the combination of taste, touch and smell.  

• • To get food to linger on the tongue, you can add fat, use an irritant (spice makes something last longer) or add umami

Your environment impacts your senses. When one sense is straining (e.g., room is very loud) other senses will be suppressed (taste won’t work as well, less energy being devoted to it > food doesn’t have as much flavor)