Taste is 75% smell.

What is actually happening when you taste your favorite slice of pie, or salted caramel macchiato is very scientific. There’s a lot more to tasting than just you’re tongue, it actually has more to do with your brain.

Put simply, as you bring that first bite of apple pie to your mouth, your brain is triggered through sensors at the back of your throat and nostrils, which activates receptors in your brain and mixes the smell and nerve messages – Voila! Taste. When we deal with head colds, broken noses, or anything that affects our smell we lose the ability to taste because the receptors are too damaged or swollen to signal our brains.

As we get older our taste buds become less sensitive and our tasting abilities diminish. Between the ages of 40 – 50 we begin to lose taste buds and by 60 we lose the ability to distinguish the taste of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter foods. Which begs the question, would you eat dessert if you couldn’t taste it?

We’re going to enjoy these treats while we still can!