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Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com.

 

The Fifth Taste

10:21:33 am mst / 19 February 2001 found by paul / filed in science / source Red Herring 169 hits / 3 comments / 1 e-mail

In addition to the four traditional primary flavors (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter), scientists now recognize a fifth taste known as umami, separate from the other four. This article explains what it is, and how it was isolated. (Link via Ars Technica.)

This month's Scientfic American also has an excellent article on the biology of taste.

Comments

This comment board has been retired.

too much deliciousness by diana 4:48:35 pm mst / 20 February 2001 / # 3 / reply to # 2

I disagree. Certain things can have too much deliciousness. A few examples pop to mind: * My family's recipe for chocolate-peanut butter sauce for ice cream. * Gourmet Mag's recipe for sauteed pork chops with pears in a rosemary-cider-cream sauce. * Merangue nests with Kahlua cream and strawberries. All of these things are so delicious that they induce the eater to eat more than is healthy. That means that they contain an overabundance of deliciousness. As a general rule, any food which causes the eater to express their pleasure in a spontaneous, loud outburst of joy probably has "too much deliciousness." Of course, whether such dishes have anything to do with the flavor of "umami," I have no idea. :-) diana.

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deja vue by diana 12:03:14 pm mst / 19 February 2001 / # 1

I thought that I remembered umami from another GeekPress story, and I was right! The story was Why McDonald's fries taste so good. It mentions "astringent" as yet another taste. Paul must have a short memory. :-)

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Conceptual abomination by jwales 1:35:02 pm mst / 20 February 2001 / # 2

Is no one else as horrified as I am by the conceptual abomination of naming this new flavor 'umami', Japanese for 'deliciousness'? What a horrible abuse of language! The original primary flavors are well named. Sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Those are flavors, not evaluations. It makes perfect sense to say that a certain type of sauce is "too sweet" or "too salty", or that it has "too much bitterness". But "too much deliciousness"? Impossible! Hum-bug. They should call it "glutamic" or "MSG".