A lot of what we think we're tasting is actually a smelling food from inside our mouths. One good way to differentiate between smell and taste is to pinch your nose. A taste receptor is really where the rubber meets the road in terms of taste, says undell anderson.
For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (a.k.a. the Umami Mama), scientists finally accepted a fifth. So could there be even more?
This is the fourth episode of our six-part series, Making Sense.
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