You open up the bottle and pour a small glass. You admire the deep red color and the clear smooth legs it leaves on the glass. The aroma is an intense but enjoyable bouquet. You take your first sip and the wine is well balanced and expressive. It is a true Bordeaux. As you finish the wine, letting it saturate your taste buds, the complexity of the wine is savored as you enjoy the multiplicity of its flavors. You have just experienced the fullest gustatory profile available to the human palate.
There are five basic steps in tasting wine: color, swirl, smell, taste, and savor. These are also known as the "five S" steps: see, swirl, sniff, sip, savor. Our sense of taste works together with our other senses to give the full enjoyment of a wine's flavor but it is primarily the chemical reactions in the taste buds that we consider when we ascribe a taste to a certain food or drink. (Read about Wine in a previous blog)
Taste Buds
Making Foods our Friends
Making Foods our Friends
Taste Buds - InformationIsBeautiful.net
David McCandless & Willow Tyrer
David McCandless & Willow Tyrer
Taste Buds are the chemical receptors on our tongue (and elsewhere in our mouth) that suck in the juices and savor the sweetness. No, these are not a popular brand of beer or our BFFs, although we might consider them as friends since without them food would be bland. Ever wonder what it would be like to loose your sense of taste? Food would be boring - all that chewing and no flavor. Taste is one of the traditional five senses, the ability to detect the flavor of foods and almost anything else we can put into our mouths. Taste can sense both harmful and beneficial substances. There are about 100,000 taste buds that are located on the back and front of the tongue. Others are located on the roof, sides and back of the mouth, and in the throat.
The sensation of taste can be categorized into five basic tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami. These basic tastes contribute only partially to the sensation and flavor of food in the mouth — other factors include texture, temperature, and "coolness" or "hotness."
The Five Basic Tastes and an example chemical stimulant:
- Sweet - Sugar
- Salty - Sodium
- Bitter - Quinine
- Sour - Citric Acid
- Umami - Glutamate (MSG)
Bitterness:
Bitterness is the most sensitive of the tastes, and is perceived by many as unpleasant, sharp, or disagreeable. Common bitter foods and beverages include coffee, unsweetened cocoa, marmalade, beer, olives, citrus peel and lemons. Quinine is also known for its bitter taste and is found in tonic water.
A large number of naturally bitter compounds are known to be toxic. The ability to detect bitter-tasting, toxic compounds at low thresholds provides an important protective function.
The bitterness of substances is rated relative to quinine, which has an index of 1. The most bitter substance known is the synthetic chemical denatonium, with a bitterness index of 1,000. It is used as an aversive agent that is added to toxic substances to prevent accidental ingestion.
Saltiness:
Saltiness is a taste produced primarily by sodium ions. Other alkali metal ions also taste salty, but the further removed chemically from sodium, the less salty the flavor. The saltiness of substances is rated relative to sodium chloride (NaCl), with a saltiness index of 1. Potassium chloride (KCl), the principal ingredient in salt substitutes, has a saltiness index of 0.6.
Other monovalent cations, such as ammonium (NH4+), and divalent cations, such as calcium (Ca2+), generally elicit a bitter rather than a salty taste even though they pass directly through the tongue's ion exchange channels.
Sourness:
Sourness is the taste that detects acidity. The sourness of substances is rated relative to dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl), with a sourness index of 1. By comparison, tartaric acid's index is 0.7, citric acid 0.46, and carbonic acid an index of 0.06.
Sour taste is detected by a small subset of cells that are distributed across all taste buds in the tongue. The mechanism detecting the taste sour is still not completely understood. There is evidence that the protons abundant in sour substances directly enter the sour taste cells and elicit a response.
Fruits are the most common food group that contains naturally sour foods. Examples include lemon, grape, orange, and some melons. Wine also can have a sour tinge to its flavor, and spoiled milk develops a sour taste. Sour candy, usually containing citric acid, is especially popular in North America.
Sweetness:
Sugars are the most frequent chemicals that elicit the taste of sweetness. At least two different types of "sweetness receptors" must be activated for the brain to register something as sweet. Taste detection thresholds for sweet substances are rated relative to sucrose, which has an index of 1. Lactose (milk sugar) has a sweetness index of 0.3.
Umami:
Umami is described as a savory or meaty taste. It can be tasted in cheese and soy sauce, and is also present in tomatoes, grains, and beans. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) produces a strong umami taste. Umami comes from the Japanese and means "good flavor" or "good taste." It is considered fundamental to many Eastern cuisines and was first described in 1908, although it was only recently recognized in the West as a basic taste. Some umami taste buds respond specifically to glutamate in the same way that sweet taste buds respond to sugar.
Spicy:
Spicy is not a true basic taste. The kick you get from spicy foods is a function of how much pain it inflicts on the nerve fibers in your mouth. These pain fibers, located in the tongue's papillae, are actually wrapped around the taste buds.
Taste is so complex that there are those who make a living tasting and testing foods to be sure they have just the right flavor. Such a position is the Wine Steward or Sommelier, who is trained in all aspects of wine. Now go back and finish off that bottle from Bordeaux before it goes sour!
Psalm 34:8 (NKJV) - Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
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