to different people?

Anthony here for Dnews. I am NOT hot sauce fan and my dad loves. He puts that on everything.

I have a friend who loves the taste the black licorice, but black licorice makes me sick.

The three of us are from similar cultural backgrounds, so why don't we like the same

stuff?

Now some people are super tasters and some are subtasters.

Super tasters have an ability that you probably already guessed. They can taste subtleties

that other people can't.

Subtasters are far less sensitive and there's an easy way to tell which one you are.

But first, a little bit about your sense of taste. Okay you've got your taste buds. They're

mostly on your tongue, but you've also got some on your throat and on the roof of your

mouth.

Each one is contained in something called a fungiform papillae.

Now using these miraculous receptors, you are hard-wired to experience five different

kinds and tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

Now umami is basically savory. It's named in Japanese because that's where it was discovered.

Now there's some current research that says we're also specifically built to taste fat,

but we're not sure of that.

Now you can taste those flavors anywhere on your tongue. A lot of people have been told

that you can only experience different flavors on different sections, but that's actually

a misconception that comes from some very outdated research.

So, everything you taste has some combination of those five flavors in different intensities.

And that's where everything gets there unique taste.

Now people with a high density of fungiform papillae are much more sensitive to those

different tastes. Those are the super tasters.

They tend to favor things that are more mild.

Now super tasters also have subtle brain differences in an area called the gustatory cortex, conveniently

located next to the bits that control chewing and swallowing.

That's some good organization, brain.

Super tasters also tend to have heightened senses of smell because smell is intensely

connected to taste.

But what's the benefit? Why is it good to be a super taser and why are we wired to taste

those five specific flavors?

Well, sweet foods are high in calories so when we were hunter-gatherers, finding high-calorie

food was important for survival.

Bitter tastes signal poisonous plants like that black licorice flavor.

Salty foods have important minerals and vitamins. So a super taster can find healthier foods

and avoid dangerous ones more easily.

Now about 25 percent of the population are super tasters and there's an easy test to

figure out whether you are one of them.

First, drill a small hole into your skull above the gustatory cortex.

What?

Okay I'm not allowed to do that one.

Here's a test from PopSci instead. Grab some blue food coloring, and put it all over your

tongue.

Blue dye cannot stick to your taste papillae, so if your tongue doesn't look like a smurf,

you're most likely super tester.

If it looks like mine, you're a sub taster. But WHATEVER!

I don't want to have a cool sensitive palate anyway.

Test yourself and let me know your results. Throw your favorite and least favorite flavors

in down below so we can see just how accurate all this is and subscribe for more Dnews.