Scientists discover a sixth taste: beyond sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami, there is also fat

?? According to the Xinhua News Agency's "Xinhua International" client report, whether it is a lavish feast or street food, your tongue must already be more than familiar with the five basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. It would be hard to go a single meal without their seasoning. A reminder: scientifically speaking, spiciness is not actually a taste, but a sensation, a burning feeling, a kind of pain. If you like spicy food, it is because you enjoy that burning pain.

Perhaps you will also argue that there are other tastes such as astringency, numbness, metallic taste and so on, but those are merely sensations produced when basic tastes are mixed together, or flavors produced when basic tastes are mixed with sensations such as pain and numbness. The basic tastes discussed here are the experiences produced simply by the direct action of chemicals in food on the taste buds of the tongue. At present, only five are generally recognized by the scientific community: sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami.

Previously, science held that the five basic tastes the human taste buds can perceive are bitter, salty, sweet, umami and sour.

But scientists at Purdue University in the United States have recently confirmed a sixth taste - fat.

　　What does "fat" taste like?

Some Chinese-language media have translated this new taste as "fat taste," but the author believes that basic tastes should not use a certain substance as a reference. Taste is an innate physiological response, and the single word "fat" can basically capture that sensation on the tongue.

So, what exactly does "fat" taste like?

Describing a taste in words is really difficult, just as, to this day, English still has no word that can accurately describe the fifth taste discovered and defined by Japanese people - umami. If one must describe the taste of "fat," it is the sensation when you bite into a juicy steak, or the taste of dropping a drop of olive oil on your tongue. It may be a little greasy, a little fragrant, and may also carry a bit of the flavor of fat.

But scientists at Purdue University have indeed found evidence that this is a basic taste. Through repeated experiments, scientists classified different tastes and had participants taste, classify and distinguish them. Enough people distinguished the "fat" taste, which is different from umami and even more different from sour, sweet, bitter and salty.

More critically, the fat taste fits the characteristics of a basic taste. It does not overlap with the other five known tastes, it is not a taste that any other taste can be mixed together to produce, and it is a unique taste that can be separated out. It is like the three primary colors, one of the basic colors used to mix other colorful shades.

The taste of "fat" is hard to express in words.

What is the significance of the "fat" taste?

If it were a pure "fat" taste, it would be a taste that is very hard to accept and might make people feel nauseated. But over the years, when people enjoy delicious food, the participation of the "fat" taste has never been absent. This is because scientists found in their research that when the "fat" taste is mixed with various flavors, it enhances other tastes and produces a unique taste sensation. Simply put, if you gnaw on a pure block of fat, you will definitely curse, but if this fat taste is mixed into braised pork interwoven with umami, saltiness and sweetness, it will definitely make you eat with great relish.

The discovery of "fat" is of great significance and may drive a revolution in the food industry.

Simply put, if it is not salty enough you can add salt, if it is not sweet enough you can add sugar, if you like sourness you can add vinegar, if you like bitterness you can bring in bitter foods, and umami can be controlled by chicken essence and monosodium glutamate. Then what about the "fat" taste?

If the "fat" taste could be extracted into a kind of seasoning, it would presumably trigger a taste revolution, and that would also be a food industry revolution. By then, making cucumbers taste like roast meat would probably no longer be a difficult thing.