You’ve heard of the five tastes

(they’re sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami)

Turns out, flavor is taste, but never without smell

Fruity, malty, grassy, roasty, floral, herbal, funky?

The kaleidscope of flavor is mostly from things you smell.

You smell every time you eat. Not just the regular sniffing you thought was the A to Z of aroma. Flavors float up the back of your throat and enter your nose, backwards. Feels like it’s happening on your tongue, but it’s a trick, it’s in your nose, like an optical (but gustatory) illusion.

That’s Retronasal, babey:

a capability you never knew you had access to, working behind the scenes and across the senses to make food and flavor greater than the sum of its parts.