Basic tastes, how you feel?

While the human tongue may be able to identify many thousands of different tastes, all these are grouped into five primary tastes. In the West, basic tastes have traditionally been: bitter, salty, sour, and sweet.[16] Some have claimed four categories to be insufficient.[a][16][17][18] Umami has recently seen inclusion in the list of basic tastes.[16][18][19] Piquance is considered another such basic taste in The East.[19]

Bitter
See also: Bitterant Bitterness is perceived by many to be unpleasant. An aversive taste,[5] it helps prevent ingestion of toxic substances.[20][21] The ability to detect bitter-tasting substances at low thresholds is considered to provide an important protective function because many toxins taste bitter.[20][21][22]

Salty
Saltiness is the taste of salt. An appetitive taste,[5] it drives the consumption of salt.[citation
needed]

Salt suppresses bitterness, and is commonly added to chocolates, fruits, and desserts to intensify their sweetness.[citation needed]

Sour
"Sour" redirects here. For other uses, see Sour (disambiguation). Sour is a basic taste that is considered agreeable only in small amounts. An aversive taste, it wards off the ingestion of harmful substances.[5]

Sweet
Main article: Sweetness See also: Miraculin and Curculin An appetitive taste,[5] sweetness rewards the consumption of energy-rich sugars.[citation needed]

Umami
Main article: Umami

Umami is an appetitive taste[5] facilitating ingestion of protein-rich food,[citation needed] and it is variously described as a savory,[23][24][25] brothy[citation needed] or meaty[25][26] taste. Umami can be tasted in cheese[19] and soy sauce,[16] and while also found in many other fermented and aged foods this taste is also present in tomatoes, grains and beans.[19] Monosodium glutamate (MSG), developed as a food additive in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda,[4] produces a strong umami taste.[16] Umami (?) is a loanword from Japanese meaning "good flavor" or "good taste".[27] Although considered fundamental to many Eastern cuisines[28] and first described in 1908,[29] it was only recently recognized in the West as a basic taste.[16][23]

Measuring relative tastes

Measuring the degree by which a substance presents one basic taste can be done in a subjective way by comparing its taste to a reference substance. Quinine, a bitter medicinal found in tonic water, can be used to subjectively rate the bitterness of a substance.[30] Units of dilute quinine hydrochloride (1 g in 2000 mL of water) can be used to measure the threshold bitterness concentration, the level at which the presence of a dilute bitter substance can be detected by a human taster, of other compounds.[30] More formal chemical analysis, while possible, is difficult.[30] Relative saltiness can be rated by comparison to a dilute salt solution.[31] The sourness of a substance can be rated by comparing it to very dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl).[citation needed] Sweetness is subjectively measured by comparing the threshold values, or level at which the presence of a dilute substance can be detected by a human taster, of different sweet substances.[32] Substances are usually measured relative to sucrose,[33] which is usually given an arbitrary index of 1[34][35] or 100.[36] Fructose is about 1.4 times sweeter than sucrose; glucose, a sugar found in honey and vegetables, is about three-quarters as sweet; and lactose, a milk sugar, is one-half as sweet.[b][32]

Functional structure
Bitterness Research has shown that TAS2Rs (taste receptors, type 2, also known as T2Rs) such as TAS2R38 are responsible for the human ability to taste bitter substances.[37] They are identified not only by their ability to taste certain bitter ligands, but also by the morphology of the receptor itself (surface bound, monomeric).[38] Saltiness Saltiness is a taste produced best by the presence of cations (such as Na+, K+ or Li+)[39] and, like sour, it is tasted using ion channels.[39]
2

Other ions of the alkali metals group also taste salty, but the less sodium-like the ion is, the less salty the sensation.[citation needed] As the size of lithium and potassium ions is close to that of sodium, they taste similar to salt.[citation needed] In contrast, the larger rubidium and cesium ions do not taste as salty.[citation needed] Other monovalent cations, e.g., ammonium, NH+ 4, and divalent cations of the alkali earth metal group of the periodic table, e.g., calcium, Ca2+, ions, in general, elicit a bitter rather than a salty taste even though they, too, can pass directly through ion channels in the tongue.[citation needed] Sourness Sourness is acidity,[40][41] and, like salt, it is a taste sensed using ion channels.[39] Hydrogen ion channels detect the concentration of hydronium ions that are formed from acids and water.[citation needed] In addition, the taste receptor PKD2L1 has been found to be involved in tasting sour.[42] Sweetness Sweetness is produced by the presence of sugars, some proteins, and a few other substances.[citation needed] It is often connected to aldehydes and ketones, which contain a carbonyl group.[citation needed] Sweetness is detected by a variety of G protein-coupled receptors coupled to a G protein that acts as an intermediary in the communication between taste bud and brain, gustducin.[43] These receptors are T1R2+3 (heterodimer) and T1R3 (homodimer), which account for sweet sensing in humans and other animals.[44] Umami-ness The amino acid glutamic acid is responsible for umami,[45][46] but some nucleotides (inosinic acid[28][47] and guanylic acid[45]) can act as complements, enhancing the taste.[28][47] Glutamic acid binds to a variant of the G protein-coupled receptor, producing an umami taste