The idea of taste is complex. I realized this today; it is influenced by sight, smell, and texture (touch). Beyond that taste can be influenced by other foods or drinks that have been consumed as well as the type of toothpaste used to clean the mouth. I was struck by how much this was true today.
The first thought that comes to my mind when I think of orange juice is citrusy goodness. That is true, but it isn't true after just brushing your teeth. I know that I am not the only one that has tried to drink orange juice or another type of juice immediately after brushing my teeth, and I think we can all agree that the taste is not pleasant. Brushing the teeth not only affects the taste of orange juice but I found that it affects most of the tastes: it dulls the sweetness of sugar, it gets rid of the taste of salt, it escalates the bitterness of tonic water , and it multiplies the sour of lemon and lime juice.
Smell can also affect taste. I was astonished when doing one of the experiments how hard it was to tell what type of chip you were tasting while smelling the other type of chip. When I smelled the original potato chips and ate a barbecue chip, I believed I was eating an original chip.
It truly is amazing to me how the mouth receives the stimuli for different tastes: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and unami. Taste, what I thought as a simple everyday occurrence is so complex and interesting.
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