The tongue is a muscle with glands, sensory cells, and fatty tissue that helps to moisten food with saliva. You cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For instance, if salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to identify it. As soon as saliva is added, the salt dissolves and the taste sensation takes place.
Try the Experiment
Materials
*.dry food, such as cookies, crackers or pretzels
*.paper towels
*.water
Experiment
1.Dry your tongue! Lint-free paper towels are a good choice, but if you'd rather use your shirt or arm or whatever, I'm not going to stop you.
2.Place a sample of dry food on your tongue. You'll get the best results if you have multiple foods available and you close your eyes and have a friend feed you the food. This is because some of what you taste is psychological. It's like when you pick up a can expecting cola and it's tea... the taste is "off" because you already have an expectation. Try to avoid bias in your results by removing visual cues.
3.What did you taste? Did you taste anything? Take a sip of water and try again, letting all that saliva-goodness work its magic.
4.Lather, rinse, repeat with other types of food.
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