How many tastes can be detected by the tongue?

The correct answer is that the tongue can detect five distinct tastes. These are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). Each of these tastes corresponds to specific chemical compounds found in foods. For example, sweet taste receptors detect sugars, sour taste receptors respond to acids, salty taste receptors react to sodium ions, bitter taste receptors can sense a range of potentially harmful substances, and umami taste receptors are tuned to savory amino acids, primarily glutamate.

While there may be a greater variety of taste sensations when considering the complexity of flavors that arise from combinations of these tastes and the influence of olfactory senses (smell), the fundamental biological capacity of the taste buds on the tongue is to identify these five basic tastes. This understanding is foundational to exploring the flavors and profiles of various foods and beverages, including different styles of beer, which is particularly relevant in the context of beer tasting and evaluation in the Cicerone Certification Program.