In article >,
serene > wrote:

> Julia Altshuler wrote:
> > Dave Smith wrote:
> >
> >> We only detect 5 tastes; salt, sour, sweet. bitter and umami.
> >
> >
> >
> > I've heard that too and have probably repeated it on occasion, but now
> > I'm wondering. If there are only 5 basic tastes, then how do I know the
> > difference between a pear and a pineapple? They're both sweet and tart,
> > but a pear tastes distinctly like a pear, and a pineapple distinctly
> > like a pineapple. What is that difference if it is not taste?
>
> According to my chemistry teacher, it's scent. There are things called
> "esters", apparently, and other things (this class was a long time ago)
> that tell your brain that one sweet thing tastes different from another
> sweet thing, for instance.
>
> serene

That is an interesting thought...

Plug your nose, blindfold yourself, then have someone let you taste a
series of things with similar textures.

I think that smell provides a lot of the food "experience".
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson