I’m old enough to remember being taught in school that humans could taste only four basic flavors: sweet, salt, bitter and sour. All relate to the perception of simple chemicals: sweetness of sugar; saltiness of metal ions in substances like salt; bitterness of some toxins; and sourness of acidity.
In the 1980s, however, the quartet premise began to crumble: The scientific community recognized umami—the Japanese word meaning “a pleasant savory taste”—as our fifth taste. (It relates to the perception of amino acid glutamate.) Now, researchers at the University of Southern California believe they’ve found a sixth. And it’s a strange one, at least for those of us who didn’t grow up eating salty licorice.
According to Science Daily, USC scientists found that taste-bud receptors can detect ammonium chloride, a chemical found in many waste products, which can potentially signal toxicity. Some say it tastes like window cleaner. But ammonium chloride is also a key ingredient in a popular Nordic candy: salty licorice.
“If you live in a Scandinavian country, you will be familiar with and may like this taste,” says Emily Liman, one of the researchers.
Some history: Both ammonium chloride and licorice root were used medicinally as cough treatments across the world for centuries, and at some point, someone thought to combine them. By the 1930s, ammonium chloride-spiked licorice was popular in Finland and many other countries. Today, according to the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, there are only six nations that love the salty licorice: Norway, Sweden,
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
