The art of Flavor

The rule of fives.

Quick overview: 

We have five senses: the sensations of taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight.

Taste is our ability to perceive food, minerals, and poisons, using our taste buds, or gustatory calyculi, which are concentrated on our tongue. The five basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter. 


Now how does flavor fit into the perception of our senses?

Flavor depends on a combination of factors including visual appearance, texture, temperature, taste, and aroma. The olfactory is quite important for intensity of a flavor.  

So flavor is a multi-sensory dependent experience. 


Based on past experiences, our brains associates certain flavors with the visual stimulation of shapes, color...

How many other experiences in life, are affected by all our senses. This is exactly why eating can be such a pleasurable , even all consuming experience.

Justine Zwiebel / BuzzFeed