Taste

The taste is much more well-known than the smell, and it is considered that the basic tastes are only four: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. After years of research and debate, most scientists are inclined to recognition of the fifth taste "umami", which have long been familiar with Japanese and Chinese chefs. The presence of this salty broth taste ensures the presence of monosodium glutamate (naturally found in the seaweed kombu, Italian cheese Parmesan cheese and soy sauce). But all the wealth of shades of what is called taste, olfactory we owe. Perhaps you have noticed that when a strong cold sense of smell for the time lost and the food becomes tasteless. But the fact that when cold you get the information about the taste just from the language. As shown by experiments, trying out products only in the language, a person does not even distinguishes peeled apples from potatoes.
Being essentially a reaction to the chemicals, the taste is largely the relative olfactory. Like odorous chemical compounds, the substances that give us the sense of taste must be dissolved. When only dry food is dissolved by saliva, we can determine its taste. The presence of salt is determined very quickly, because it quickly dissolves in saliva. More complex composition of substances dissolved in the mouth longer, and so the taste we feel is not as fast as salt.