Taste this!

Ever thought about why foods taste different? It's kinda amazing. Your tongue and the roof of your mouth are covered with thousands of tiny taste buds. When you eat, saliva in your mouth helps break down your food. This causes the receptor cells located in your tastes buds to send messages through sensory nerves to your brain. Your brain then tells you what flavors you are tasting.

Taste buds probably play the most important part in helping you enjoy the many flavors of food. Your taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue; the sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue; and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.

Everyone's tastes are different. In fact, your tastes will change as you get older. When you were a baby, you had taste buds, not only on your tongue, but on the sides and roof of your mouth. This means you were very sensitive to different foods. As you grew, the taste buds began to disappear from the sides and roof of your mouth, leaving taste buds mostly on your tongue. As you get older, your taste buds will become even less sensitive, so you will be more likely to eat foods that you thought were too strong as a child.

What if you could not taste anything? Things like medications, smoking, not getting enough of the right vitamins, injury to the head, brain tumors, chemical exposure, and the effects of radiation can cause taste disorders.

More interesting but totally useless facts:

1. We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths; even on the roofs of our mouths.
2. Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts. (that is mildly disturbing)
3. Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.
4. In general, girls have more taste buds than boys (the wife always told me she has better taste than I do)
5. Taste is the weakest of the five senses.

Taste is that exotic sense that can create joy or sensory overload. I have tasted a lot of things in my life and some can bring back vivid memories:

1. Spicy food – jalapenos, peppers, horseradish, General Tso Chicken, Wasabi Peas, Spicy Chicken wings. I’ve burnt my lips on a wide variety of foods in life that have brought me to tears. Life lesson 104: When handling jalapenos, never rub your eyes.


2. Sweet – honey, maple syrup, candy. In honor of Valentine's day today - remember your sweetie.


3. Sour/bitter/tart – some sour tastes are good (lemon, lime, vinegar, sauerkraut) while others are bad (milk, wine, cheese). One of my favorite sour tastes is a Whiskey Sour. Here’s a challenge: Try to describe what sour tastes like to someone who has no sense of taste.


4. Salty – crackers, chips, pretzels, popcorn, bacon. I’m one of those guys who loves salt. Fortunately, I inherited some of the good genes from my momma and have very low blood pressure.


5. Hot – hot chocolate (or cider, tea, coffee, spiced wine) on a cold, snowy day. After a cold snowy day skiing the slopes (or shoveling the driveway), a cup of hot chocolate was a favorite treat.


6. Cold – ice cream, popsicles, ice cold beer. Cold is something we appreciate down here on the coast especially during the long hot summer months. Temperature can vastly change the flavor of food/drink and affect your enjoyment. Ever try a warm beer?


7. Chocolate – dark, sweet, milk. For some, chocolate has been elevated to an almost erotic experience. Almost everybody loves chocolate in some form or another. While I am really not as much of a fanatic as my wife, I have my favorites. M&Ms and Whoppers are some of the ones I would prefer. I will avoid some of the more exotic brands (cherry filled).


8. Scotch/whiskey/bourbon (hey, this is my meme and I’m listing my favorite tastes) – Over the years, I have acquired a taste for good scotch. There is a difference between the cheap, mass produced swill and a bottle of single malt scotch (think Macallan).


9. Beer – I have had a chance to taste a variety of beers from around the world. For almost 5 years, I lived in Germany which is considered, by some, to be the Valhalla of beer. I’ve tasted dark beers, ales, bock beer, wheat beer, stouts, porters, lite beers, pilsners, pumpkin beer, cherry beer (ugh), and one particularly nasty variety called a rauchen (smoke) beer. Trust me; do not try that one - even on a dare. (Hmm, I’m thinking a beer meme for later).


10. Food – of course, what good would a taste meme be without some reference to food? I have a thing for Chinese & Italian food. German food is great but a bit heavy (wiener schnitzel and spätzle ain’t light cuisine).

Taste is one of those senses we all secretly enjoy to some excess. Whether it is too much chocolate or too much salt or too much bacon (impossible), some tastes are indulgences. Remember the motto:

If it tastes too good, it is probably bad for you…