Talk:Taste

Note

Citation 31 should be the following:

"Huang AL, Chen X, Hoon MA, Chandrashekar J, Guo W, Trankner D, Ryba NJ, Zuker CS (2006). The cells and logic for mammalian sour taste detection. Nature 442: 934-938."

It's better to have the original paper as opposed to a ScienceDaily article.

Tomatoes

Don't you guys think tomatoes are metallic? Whenever I taste them they taste like blood. -- User:Sneaky Oviraptor18

Metallic taste

I'm removing the "metallic taste" section as uncited. Citations 46 and 47 both link to this paper, which does not say that metallic taste has been accepted as a basic taste, but in fact says that it is primarily an olfactory phenomenon. It does say that metallic has occasionally been proposed as a basic tastes.

I found this article which specifically says that metallic as a basic taste is controversial, but that the findings were consistent with that. I'm going to remove metallic in its current form, but maybe a section called "other tastes" can be added, which could have a paragraph on the evidence for and against piquance, fattiness and metallicity as basic tastes. --0x0077BE (talk) 21:52, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

I came here specifically to learn more about metallic as a basic taste so removing the whole paragraph without replacing it with the information you gave here might not have been the most helpful choice. Saying something is controversial and pointing to the conflicting sources is totally acceptable for Wikipedia IMHO.

I don't object an "other tastes" section that could also include the proposed fatty acid taste [1] for example but to be honest, according to my experience saying that something "could be done" or suchlike is not a very effective way of changing anything. Since you seem knowledgeable, can't you find the time to at least start such a section? --Mudd1 (talk) 18:17, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

It can be time-consuming to get it right, and I'm by no means an expert on taste. Hopefully some interested party with more free time will do it. The section was removed because it was not verifiable, and as far as I can tell not accurate, as such, it wasn't adding anything to the article. Before, you could come to the article looking for information about metallic taste and find what was likely false information. Now you will find nothing, but you'll at least know that there's nothing here - this is also more likely to spur the addition of good material, when people find that it is lacking.

As for replacing the information on the page with the information here - I don't think that's a good idea. The information I put here was my cursory assessment of the situation, so that others could follow those leads. It's not encyclopedic content at all, so doesn't belong in the encyclopedia namespace. I just put it here as a justification for the removal and a proposed direction for its replacement. --0x0077BE (talk) 20:20, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Gustation system merger?

There is an article on the gustatory system that I would suggest merging with this one. There is a lot of overlap and IMO very few people will directly search for the gustatory system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustatory_system — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.24.241.107 (talk) 22:16, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

taste receptors

There should be a separate article on taste receptors and this article should also explain about taste receptors other than referring to articles about biochemical receptors or G-protein-coupled receptors. Ben ^T/_C 18:40, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Hi Ben! There is a separate article on taste receptors! Wikipedia has it all... Lova Falk talk 19:40, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Saltiness and amino acid

According to this article, there is some amino acid or peptide that makes a salty substance saltier to the tongue. Komitsuki (talk) 14:17, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Umami

Does anyone know why it isn't just called "savory"? I have never heard of anyone say "This tastes umami", but I have heard "This tastes savory". yonnie (talk) 20:55, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

"Savory" is vague. As a scientific term "umami" refers specifically to a taste that derives from protein. The term is originally Japanese and has not yet propagated into widespread English use. But when "umami" is used to described the fifth basic taste, it refers specifically to taste receptors that are activated by glutamate. The term "savory" is too ambiguous to get that across. Looie496 (talk) 21:58, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Taste Bud Receptor Areas

I believe that it has been an established fact that the taste buds responsible for all the tastes are found all over the mouth, and not concentrated anywhere or in any "main area". Yet, the four tastes taught in schools still have a sentence referring to a main area of the tongue that detects them.216.171.19.125 (talk) 01:45, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Alcohol

There is a particular sensation in the mouth when alcohol is consumed, especially when drinking distilled spirits. The clearest taste of this taste (!) is perceived when drinking vodka or (not recommended) pure surgical spirit, as they are both"tasteless" and odourless, yet this "alcohol taste" is clearly perceived. Has there been research done on this taste? Can it be added to the current tastes in the "Further sensations" section (e.g. kokumi or metallicness?), or is it a taste of its own? If so, under what name should we add it in the "further sensations" section? BigSteve (talk) 23:47, 27 March 2013 (UTC)