Taste

Taste receptors detect sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Most of what is experienced as flavour is actually smell — which is why food tastes bland with a blocked nose.

The numbers

Basic tastes

5 — sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami

Taste buds

2,000–8,000

Bud lifespan

about 10 days

Worth knowing

Umami was proposed in 1908 and only accepted in the West after its receptor was identified in 2002. Taste buds are also on the palate, throat and epiglottis, not only the tongue, and they are replaced roughly every ten days — which is why a burned tongue recovers quickly.

A common claim that is wrong

The tongue map is wrong. The idea that sweet is tasted at the tip and bitter at the back comes from a mistranslation of a 1901 German paper and was disproved in 1974. Every basic taste is detectable across the whole tongue.

Structural reference only — this is not medical advice, and individual variation in every figure here is substantial. Anything concerning your own health belongs with a clinician rather than a reference page.