![]() The word was coined one century ago by the Japanese scientist who discovered that umami is a distinct taste. It’s a Japanese word that the English language, which has no equivalent, has adopted. We now know that there is a fifth taste, a distinct but subtle one called umami (pronounced oo-mah´mee). Gone are the days of only four basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. How is it that only five different types of taste receptors have been identified, yet we are able to perceive and savor such an abundance of flavor? Umami-The Fifth Taste Yet we all know that food offers an endless variety of rich and subtle flavors. It’s an oddity of nature that we are able to distinguish only five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (see the sidebar on that last one). It’s a horrible thought, isn’t it? To be honest, though, taste is the least essential of our five senses, and it’s certainly the crudest, presenting us with less information about the world around us than any of the other four. Try to imagine life without your sense of taste-without the ability to appreciate the luscious flavors of a strawberry or a doughnut, a slice of bacon or a chocolate truffle. ![]() ![]() ![]() Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), French lawyer, politician, and gourmet smell and taste are in fact but a single sense, whose laboratory is the mouth and whose chimney is the nose." Sensory impairments can have multiple causes, including age and diabetes
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