Question

If someone asks you to describe the taste of amla or cucumber, you might find it difficult to explain. How would you describe the taste of these tomatoes, onion, saunf, garlic? Think of words that you know or make up your own words to describe the taste.

Answer 1

Hint: Tongue is the main organ that helps to determine the taste of the food . Tongue contains taste buds for different tastes for example chilli taste, sour taste, bitter taste . The gustatory receptor also known as taste receptors helps us to determine the taste of the food.

Complete answer:
Taste buds present in the tongue contain the taste receptor cells that are used to detect the taste of a food, which are also known as gustatory cells or gustatory receptors. The taste receptors are present around the small structures located in the tongue known as papillae.
These papillae are found on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, upper oesophagus the pipe that helps to transport food, the cheek, and epiglottis. These structures are involved in detecting the five types of taste that we get while eating something .

 These include : salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami type of taste. A most popular assumption that is not true tells that these different tastes go to different regions of the tongue; in reality these tastes can be felt by any area of the tongue.
Small openings are present in the tongue epithelium, that are called taste pores. A lot of the food dissolved in saliva comes into contact with the taste receptors.

Food	Taste
Tomato	It tastes sweet, a little bit sour and is juicy.
Onion	It gives a pungent taste with a pungent smell.
Saunf	It gives a nice taste and smell is also good. It helps in good digestion and also improves metabolism
Garlic	It gives a pungent taste with a pungent smell. It sometimes gives bitter taste.

Note: The taste pores are located on top of the taste receptor cells that include and become part of the taste buds. The taste receptor cells send information that is gathered and detected by clusters of various receptors and ion channels to the gustatory areas of the brain through the seventh, ninth and tenth cranial nerves.