Is it true that there is a "fifth taste"?

In school we have been taught that there are four basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter and acid , but in recent years the need has arisen to take into account a fifth flavor, which until now had been overlooked. They call it " Umami ", which in Japanese means something like "nice or tasty flavor".

Although we have to make a nuance. There are many who refuse to accept the existence of this fifth flavor. The reason? Because more than a taste that we can all identify, the umami would be rather a perception, an indefinable sensation that does not abound too much in our food and that only the cooks strive to search to endow their dishes with an almost addictive flavor. Have you ever wondered why Japanese food is so tasty ? Or why do we like French fries or snaks so much? Because most contain umami, or what is the same "monosodium glutamate".

But, what does "Umami" know?
Here comes the key question: what does Umami know? Scientists clarify us that more than a taste is a sensation, or na pleasurable sensation . The Umami induces salivation, pleasantly stimulates our tongue, throat and palate, welcoming that food itself that contains umami with great pleasure. Think of a fried potato, a hamburger or that Japanese dish of kombu dashi (seaweed soup) ... All this has in its composition this unclassifiable, but tasty element.

The most skeptical chefs explain that this feeling is also eating, for example, melon with ham. A mixture of sweet and salty, neither one thing nor the other. Something that we can also find with tomatoes, for example, or parmesan cheese, soy sauce or serrano ham. The secret of this supposed fifth taste would be basically in monosodium glutamate . The so-called umami flavor is found naturally in some previously cited foods such as tomato, but it is generally used as an artificial flavor enhancer.

Discovery of the flavor "Unami"

Glutamate has always been in our dishes since ancient times. The Romans already used fermented fish sauces rich in this element. Also in the nineteenth century, one of the most famous chefs in Paris was famous, precisely, to combine in their culinary creations the umami flavor with sweet, salty and bitter.

But it was in 1908 when a Japanese scientist, named Kikunae Ikeda, discovered that there was a chemical element that stimulated more taste buds, promoting a very-very pleasant taste . And that's how he called it, "Umami", tasty flavor. From then on, monosodium glutamate began to be used as a basic element of oriental cuisine, combining it with multiple foods, creating suggestive and addictive dishes that naturally and artificially contained this enhancer.

Where are the taste receptors of Umami?
So that we can accept the existence of a flavor, receptors must be found on the tongue capable of reacting to that element. And so it was, in the year 2000, scientists from the University of Miami showed us that yes, there really were receptors for glutamate (three in total) , but in reality they were very different from the others. Subsequently, the Academy of Sciences of New York explained that they were scattered throughout the language, that is, "there is no exclusive region for the umami." These data can be seen, if you are interested, in the journal "The journal of Phisiology"

But in spite of everything, we have to say that there are still many who do not accept that the umami is the fifth flavor, it would be rather a "sensation" and not a flavor as such . We must also remember the bad popular press that has monosodium glutamate, hence it is an open topic and with some controversy.

As a curiosity you may wonder at this time if the spicy is also a flavor. The answer is no". And for what reason? basically because we do not have taste buds that receive the spice, but for the sweet, salty, bitter, acid and umami. The spicy is perceived thanks to the nocipceptores, or pathways of pain. Something stimulating, but sometimes ... painful, and that, as you know, is associated with our personality.
And now tell us, have you ever tasted the umami flavor?