Taste Cells

Inside a taste bud

Stick out your tongue and look in a mirror. See the little bumps? Those are not taste buds! The tiny taste buds are hidden in and around those bumps.

Each taste bud is shaped a bit like a tiny onion. Inside are about 50 to 100 taste cells. A tiny hole on top, called the taste pore, lets bits of food in.

Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, savory

Taste cells can sense five main tastes:

• Sweet, like fruit
• Salty, like crackers
• Sour, like lemons
• Bitter, like dark chocolate
• Savory (also called umami), like cheese or soup

When food touches a taste cell, it sends a signal along a nerve to your brain. Every part of your tongue can sense all five tastes.

Your nose helps you taste

Much of what we call flavor actually comes from your nose! Smells from food drift up to your smell cells, and your brain mixes them with taste.

Taste cell quiz