Please like why is there 4 different words for other things that are “sour”??
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Tangy, sour and tart are the same thing, referring to how we perceive acid.
Bitterness is how we perceive basic (i.e. high pH) substances.
In a sense they’re opposites.
Bitter is not like those other words. Tangy and tart are both words that describe the sense of sourness. Sour (and those other words) makes you want to pucker. Bitter makes you want to spit it out.
Well tangy, sour, and tart (and zesty)are all pretty much the same thing. Bitter is completely different. Sour flavors are caused by acid. Bitterness is caused by different things, for example in kale it’s is caused by chemicals called isothiocyanates which are formed when the plant cells are ruptured.
As others have said, bitter is not like the others. The other three are all describing the same thing at different levels, tangy is less sour than tart which is less sour than sour.
I connect each to foods.
Bitter – brussel sprouts e.g.
Sour – lemon
Tart – cherries
Tangy – certain cheeses, oranges
Sometimes, too much sourness tastes bitter. Also, sometimes too much saltiness tastes bitter. This is just due to how tastebuds detect chemicals. But sourness and bitterness (and saltiness too) are still different tastes.
Flavor words in English just have a much less precise meaning. Think of taste words as analogous to color words – sometimes we associate ‘violet’ with blue, other times we associate it with red. Flavor nuance is harder to share with people than colors because of tongues instead of eyes. That means it’s complicated, and it’s inconsistent.
With that in mind. ‘Sour’ just means something tastes acidic. Tangy means something tastes acidic but in an aromatic or pleasant way. Tart often means a good balance of sweet and sour together. (i.e., “a fruit tart”)
Bitter is the ‘blue’ different from your other three synonymous ‘red’ flavors. It means something tastes like a base/alkaline. If your not sure the difference between acids and bases thats more ELI10 but you can tell the difference by comparing the taste of any citrus fruit to the taste of soap. Citrus is definitely sour. Soap definitely is bitter.
IMHO:
Tangy is vinegar.
Sour is lemon, unless you mean “sour” as in “spoiled” like milk.
Tart is a Granny Smith apple.
Your taste buds are purpose-driven:
* Sweetness is the detector for *calories*, since sugar is pretty calorie-packed and starvation has been a major concern for most of human history.
* Sourness is the detector for *acids*, which your body uses to try and find necessary vitamins.
* Saltiness is the detector for…well…salt, because your body needs it. It’s the only single-material taste detector we have.
* Bitterness is the detector for *bases*, because many botanical poisons are alkaline and this was an early-warning system for people to spit out whatever they were trying to eat. This is also why younger people tend to dislike bitter foods like black coffee, because “bitter means danger!” is hard-wired into your brain and it takes time to learn to override that.
There are multiple words for similar things because that’s just how languages work. This is called a “connotation”: when a word has more complex associations than what its literal meaning may be. So, “sour” and “tart” and “tangy” basically all mean the same thing, but “tangy” might be used indicate that it’s a more pleasant kind of sourness, while “tart” indicates something a bit more “mouth-puckering”. “Sour” is the “default” meaning, more or less. Then “bitter” is completely different as discussed above.
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.
I never thought of bitter or tangy being similar to sour. Tangy seems to be related acidity like vinegar, Bitter is the opposite, where as sour makes you pucker, a different kind of thing.
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