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Vocabulary: tasting and enjoying

Every person can appreciate the different tastes of the food they eat or try in their mouths. Of course, the teeth are part of the process, cutting, pulling, grinding the food, they participate in its appreciation. Our gums must of course be clean and healthy. We mustn't forget that our noses play a part in this gustative process...

However, the real organ of "taste" is our tongue and it also helps to recognize our food and appreciate it.

As late as 2009, worldwide scientists still believed in a sort of cartography of our tongue which was supposed to be divided into specific zones to appreciate the different tastes. This phenomenon has now been denied and all the different zones of the tongue are known to be able to detect and appreciate the different tastes.

There are five tastes: sweet (sweetness), salty (saltiness), sour/ acrid (sourness/acridity), bitter (bitterness) and "umami" (umami) which corresponds to a discovery of the beginning of the 20th century. This fifth taste was identified in Asian food and is supposed to be the reason for old people's remarkable good health in the Asian Continent. It's an appetitive taste (sometimes considered as a food additive); added to other elements, it would guarantee a balanced nutrition and therefore the promise of long and harmonious health.

In the mouth, the food we eat chemically reacts thanks to taste receptive cells situated on the "papillae" (taste buds) of the tongue and the mouth.

The papillae of the tongue (taste buds)

to taste of	= have the same taste as	to give someone a taste of stg	= to make someone taste
a flavour	= (of an ice cream)	to flavour	= to add and season
sweet to the taste	= pleasant to the taste	to sample	= taste a small quantity
to have a sweet tooth	= to love sweets	to relish, to enjoy	= to like very much
blind taste-test	= test without looking	to taste like	= have the same taste as

What does it taste like?

a nice taste		a bad taste
a sweet taste	= a taste of sugar	a sour taste	= an acrid taste
salty	= a taste of salt	peppery	= tasting like pepper
hot	= very strong taste	pungent	= very hot and strong
bitter	= not sweet	bitter-sweet	= both bitter and sweet.
delicious	= very good	tasty	= savoury
appetizing	= giving an appetite	luscious	= extremely good
palatable	= pleasant to the taste	mouth watering	= creating an appetite

But it can also be ....

It can be delicious... but it can be acrid .... or even sickening!

tasteless	= having no taste	bland	= wanting salt
insipid	= having no taste	cloying	= causing disgust
acrid	= stinging, bitter.	unpalatable	= unpleasant
disgusting	= distasteful	= sickening	= VERY unpleasant

You can also taste in a figurative way...

... in bad taste	in good taste
to be to everyone's taste	to have expensive tastes
a taste of success	a taste of happiness

A few expressions!

- Taste the difference!

- It has great taste in small bites. = It's quite good, if you don't eat too much of it.

- To leave a sour taste; an "after taste".

- There's no accounting for tastes... = Everyone can have their own tastes.

Giraffes have black tongues, snakes have blue ones... and cats may appreciate music!

I hope you didn't find this lesson too unpalatable and that it was to your taste...

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1. 'Really, Brenda, this cake is . Can I have some more, please?'
2. 'For it to have the right texture, you should add some cream to this dough.'
3. 'This fish is too . You should add some salt, a little garlic and the juice of a lemon to it.'
4. 'This cake was made with my favourite cream. Looking at it is really . '
5. 'Oh no! My milk was so hot that I burnt my tongue and hurt my . My tongue is numb.'
6. Oh Mum, this piece of dark chocolate is too ... I'd rather have my usual milk chocolate. It's much ! '
7. 'Dear, this sauce is much too ... It's too and too ... I need a glass of water...'
8. 'I'm sorry... I don't really have this sort of music... I prefer jazz...'
9. 'I know you have but buying these jeans in one of the stores of the Magnificent Mile is really a waste of money.'

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