What’re the differences between bitter, tangy, sour and tart?

Question

Please like why is there 4 different words for other things that are “sour”??

In: 159

Answer 1

Tangy, sour, and tart are all ways of describing tastes that include an acid. Tangy tends to be less acidic, sour more so, and tart is usually when you mix very sour with sweet.

Bitter is different. Your tastebuds sense all sorts of things as bitter, and the molecules that taste bitter have certain shapes that are common with with poisonous things. In fact, some bitter foods we enjoy like cocoa and caffeine are poisons that we have a pretty good tolerance too (but many other animals don’t); eat too much at once, though, and they case make us sick and even kill us.