How can the combined use of only 5 types of taste buds produce an effectively infinite number of tastes?

Question

How can the combined use of only 5 types of taste buds produce an effectively infinite number of tastes?

In: Biology

Answer 1

There’s a difference between taste and flavour.

Flavour is a combination of taste, and aroma, i.e. smell.

Taste is simply salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (savoury), whereas aroma is all the other notes you can think of. Banana, bacon, curry, chocolate, all that kind of thing.

This is why the trick of holding your nose is so effective at deadening your sense of taste. Because smell, aroma, is a massive, arguably the majority, of the sensation of flavour.