Exploring Taste

It’s time to explore uncharted territory. In this activity, you will map out your sense of taste.

Here’s What You Need

• Cotton Swabs
• Water
• Salt
• Cocoa
• Honey
• Lemon Juice
• Five Small Cups

Here’s What You Do

If you can, find a partner to help you with the activity. Carefully add a small bit of honey to one of the cups. In another cup, add a small amount of lemon juice. In the third cup, add a mix a small amount of cocoa with water. Sprinkle some salt into the fourth cup, add some water, and stir the mixture until all of the salt dissolves. Finally, pour some water into the last cup.

Before you begin the test, you may want to make some predictions. Do you think the substances in the cups will taste differently on different parts of your tongue? Where on your tongue do you think each flavor will taste the most intense? Will it be more difficult for you to taste some flavors?

After you have made your predictions, have your helper dip a cotton swab into one of the liquids and dab it either on the front, side, or middle of your tongue. Try to guess the flavor. Make note of where you can taste the flavor best. Now, drink a bit of water to clear the taste from your mouth and repeat the process for the other flavors. Try to test all the areas of your tongue with each of the different flavors.

The Science Behind The Flavors

Our tongues are capable of tasting five basic flavors: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Most people have never heard of umami. It is the taste described most often as savoriness or meatiness. Our tongues are covered with tiny bumps called taste buds. Taste buds are responsible for telling our brain about the different flavors in our mouths. However, there is a myth that our tongue is divided into taste sections. That’s just not true. This activity should have shown you that you are capable of tasting most flavors in areas all over your tongue. That’s why you taste the different liquids on different parts of your tongue.

Fast Fact

Here are some things you may not have known about taste:

• We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths; even on the roofs of our mouths.
• Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts.
• Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.
• In general, girls have more taste buds than boys.
• Taste is the weakest of the five senses in humans.