Your tongue can pick up 5 different types of taste sensations

Back in grade school, you probably learned that the human tongue can pick up four different kinds of tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. But those textbooks left out another flavor sensation: umami. Taken from the Japanese word for "yummy," umami was first identified as a primary flavor back in 1908 by a Japanese chemist who was inspired to look for it after eating a bowl of seaweed soup. He found a chemical that is to umami what sugar is to sweet. It's monosodium glutamate, or MSG. But MSG isn't the only way to tickle your umami taste buds. Often described as the "savory" taste, umami sensations are naturally produced by foods like meat, aged cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.