How do we taste NEW foods?

Question

I know we use our taste buds, but if we try a new flavor or food we have never had before, how can we actually taste it?

I mean if we never had it before, how did we develop that taste in our mouth? Did we grow new taste buds or something?

Answer 1

intresing.... i might use that for my science project........hmmmmm....

Answer 2

You are born with all the ability to taste and smell that you will ever have.  Taste is really just 4 or 5 stimuli - Sweet, salty, sour, butter (and for some apparently, MSG).  Smell is much more diverse and it is the combination of smell and taste that gives us 'flavor'.  But that are many things you cannot taste or smell.  It does not mean these items are tasteless or odorless, it means we do not have the proper receptors to detect them.    So if it is a brand new flavor you never experienced before, that just means that is the first time that combination of receptors fired.