Activity: Flavor Sleuths
Making Sense of Taste

Author: Eve Pranis*

Overview: Students taste test solutions and discover the four flavors our taste buds can detect. As they reflect on earlier activities, they come to appreciate that flavors we experience are complex and involve more than just one sense.

Background
Taste isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all, scientists have only identified four basic flavors we can perceive through our taste buds: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. (Some contend that there's a fifth, dubbed umami, which is described as savory or broth-like. It's the flavoring that MSG brings out in foods.)

Did You Know? Tongue Maps Remember those tongue maps that show where on the tongue we perceive different tastes? Forget about them. In reality, there are taste buds all throughout our mouths; any one of them can detect all the basic tastes. Some are just more sensitive than others to a particular taste. Fish with Good Taste An average human has 9,000 taste buds and a catfish has about 27,000. What could be so tasty at the bottom of lakes?!

On the other hand, word has it that our taste buds, (which sit inside the little bumps, called papillae, on our tongues) were once key to our survival. Scientists think they evolved to help humans distinguish dangerous foods from ones that were healthy and important for survival. Many poisonous foods were bitter and spoiled ones were sour, so early humans learned to detect - and avoid - those early. Those who didn't make the connection never survived to pass on their genes! But their bodies craved flavors that were essential to their survival, like saltiness and sweetness (which gave them energy to flee wild animals). Youngsters seem to develop in much the same way; sweet foods are an instant draw, and bitter send them packing. (It's actually difficult for children under eight to tell salty and sour apart.)

Materials/Preparation: Fill five pint-size bottles with water and number them. Add one of these ingredients to each container: 1) lemon juice (1/2 cup), 2) sugar (1/4 cup), 3) salt (1/4 cup), 4) tonic or black coffee (1/2 cup), 5) add nothing to the water. Set out small cups (1 per student) or cotton swabs (1 per sample per student).

Laying the Groundwork
Ask students to name some of their favorite flavors; generate a class list. Explain that you'd like the class to sample some simple flavors that their tongues are able to detect.

Exploration
1. Have students divide a sheet of paper into four sections and number them 1 to 4.

2. Explain that each student will try one of the solutions, taking the liquid in for an instant and swallowing it (or dipping in a cotton swab and tasting it). Tasters should then record the flavor they perceived in the correct box. Before moving on to the next sample, tasters should rinse their mouths with water and swallow it.

3. Discuss students' findings as a class. Ask, Which flavors did you detect? What did each one remind you of? Which did you like the most, and why? Which did you like the least, and why? What questions or new ideas do you have? Share some of the background information on flavors with students.

Making Connections
4. Have the class look back at its original list of favorite flavors and ask, If sweet, sour, salty, and bitter are the only things we can actually taste, why did you name so many flavors? Prompt the class to consider the other sensory experiences they had as they explored foods in previous activities. What factors besides flavor affect our reactions to a food? You may want to go through each sense, in turn and ask, How does it figure into our food experience? What information does it give us? Finally, ask, What general statement can you make about flavors? (Note: Another factor sometimes linked to taste is how long a flavor lingers in the mouth.)

Assessment: Check that students begin to understand that the flavor of foods - and how we experience them - is a complex experience that draws on our past experiences, emotions, and all of our senses.

Digging Deeper

Beyond Taste, to Flavor Once your seasoned sleuths have explored foods with each of their senses, create opportunities for the class to put all their faculties to work. Together, create a chart to remind students of the different categories of information they can take in and describe with each sense (e.g., sense of touch: consistency). As students sample healthful foods throughout the year, challenge them to use one sense at a time - or all of them together - to experience and describe the fare. Consider the following themes:

• A particular farm or garden food in different forms (e.g., raw, boiled, mashed, stir fried) or recipes (pumpkin pudding, muffins, or soup)
• Dishes associated with regions or ethnicities
• A dish featuring something from a particular level of the food pyramid
• Different types of whole grains or breads
• Foods high in a particular vitamin or antioxidant
• A comparison of locally produced cheeses
  

*Activity inspired by Italy's Saying, Doing, Tasting: Taste Education Journeys in School.

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More Taste Education Activities and Articles

Cultivating Taste: Beyond the Food Pyramid

Come to Your Senses
Feast Your Eyes
A Touching Experience
Growing a Knowing Nose

Savoring Flavors: Local Tastes Compete

Standards Addressed by Taste Education Activities