The Science Behind Taste

Taste is kind of a big deal to us. It always has been.

When Sarah and Emmet started Remedy on their kitchen bench in 2012, taste was the priority. It was the era of green juices and cleanses, where supermarket shelves were full of drinks that were either straight-up-unhealthy, fake-healthy, or legit-healthy but not-so-tasty. They cracked the code: a better-for-you bev that genuinely tastes good.

Taste is our jam, so we thought we'd have a little science lesson on how taste actually works and how this impacts our bev brewing. But don't worry, we won't get too tenth-grade-chemistry on you.... Probably.

Taste through your tastebuds

When you think about taste, you probably think about your tastebuds. Whether you burnt your tongue on your Monday morning coffee and can’t taste anything properly for the rest of the week, or have a melt-in-your-mouth piece of meat that tastes too good you want to put off swallowing it for as long as possible, we all think about the taste that happens through our tastebuds.

And it makes perfect sense. Our tastebuds have a huge role to play in picking up the flavours in food. In fact, tastebuds have sensory cells that pick up the five basic tastes. Any guesses on what those are?

Go on, at least try to guess one. We’ll give you a minute to jot it down. Your phone’s notes app is fine.

….

Are you ready?

No? Okay, we’ll give you another couple of seconds.

….

Great! Now that you’ve written down your guesses, you can place a big ol’ tick next to any of the following:

1. Sweet
2. Sour
3. Salty
4. Bitter
5. Umami (AKA savoury)

These are the five flavours of taste. When you pop some food in your gob, the food interacts with these sensory cells on your tongue to figure out the combo of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and/or savoury. This message gets sent up the line to your brain for interpretation.

This is probably what most of us think of when we consider taste. Put food (or drink) in mouth. Tastebuds figure out what’s going on. Tastebuds tell brain. Brain decides whether it’s yuck or yum. This is a super important part of taste, but there’s another factor that’s arguably more important…

Taste through your nose

Believe it or not, roughly 80% of what we perceive as flavour comes from the nose.

It’s why winemakers and sommeliers alike smell their wine before taking a sip. It’s why we craft our bevs with smell in mind. For example, when you crack a can of Sodaly Yuzu Lemon, you’ll notice a fresh, zesty aroma fizz out of the can.

This all happens through the smells your nose picks up on when you’re chewing your food or sipping on your drink. These messages get sent to your brain, along with the tastebuds’ message from the tongue, to help your brain decide on how things taste.

At Remedy, we like to keep it simple. We don't want your brain to have to work too hard to interpret the messages from your tastebuds and your nose. That's why we craft bevs with taste in mind, so the moment you take a sip, your brain knows it's a darn good drop.

With a bucketload of flaves to suit anyone and everyone’s flavour preferences, it’s really a no brainer to reach for a Remedy next time you’re craving a healthy dose of flavour.