science of taste
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Four Areas of Whisky Taste

There are four tastes of the tongue: sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

You may have been taught that different parts of the tongue detect different tastes, but scientists now believe that this too is a taste bud myth. The thousands of taste buds on the tongue send signals to the brain, which in turn interprets them into the flavours we taste. So, it is technically our brain, not our tongue, that makes sense of what we are drinking.

Taste is so subjective that opinions always vary. Anyone conducting a whisky tasting experience should tell you their thoughts so that you have a guide, but interpretations will naturally vary from person to person.

“One of the best things I have read is that ‘nosing and tasting
is the subjective opinion of an objective matter.”

ALAN WINCHESTER, THE GLENLIVET MASTER DISTILLER