Creating a new flavor can take years. A successful one can result in millions of dollars of profit. That’s why flavorists are secretive about their work. But why do we love some tastes and not others?
Check out your tongue in a mirror. That slimy pink blob has thousands of taste buds that can sense five different flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. (The rich flavor you taste in meat or cheese is umami.)
Our ability to sense flavors has helped us survive. Thousands of years ago, people hunted and gathered food in the wild. A quick taste could tell them whether a food was edible or deadly. A bitter berry? It might be poisonous! That sour hunk of buffalo meat? Bleh, it’s rotten!
This may sound surprising, but your nose is even more important than your tongue in sensing flavors. The tongue can determine whether a food is sweet, bitter, or another of the five main flavors. But your sense of smell tells you practically everything else. Without it, you wouldn’t know the difference between chocolate ice cream and vanilla.