The Fifth Sense of Taste: Umami

Hi everyone, in bit of a need of help from you guys.

Recently I my friends and I stumbled onto the topic of taste buds and apparently there is a less-well known fifth taste bud called umami (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter are the other four).

Umami is the Japanese word for delicious and has been described to make one say "ahhh" or "mmm" when one experiences it.

A bit more in here The Fifth Taste

The word ‘umami' is now widely recognized and used amongst chefs, food writers and food fans around the world, but not so long ago it was known only in Japan, or among scientists, and even then viewed with considerable skepticism. One man who has been aware of umami longer and understands it better than most is Professor Tim Jacob, School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff who specializes in the relationship between smell and taste. “Umami has only been accepted in the west for the past 10 years or so, and the discovery of taste receptors for umami gave it credibility,” says Jacob.

Now here's the part where I need your help. I would like to do a school project about this mysterious fifth taste bud. I have been trying to collect images on the internet of facial expressions "ahh" or "mmm" by people all over the world. However its really hard to find other races of people. I am asking if anyone here would please share your photos of friends or family enjoying food.

Thank you for helping!

The Umami taste is usually from a certain type of seaweed. The Japanese found a way to extract and isolate it, hence this is why we have the compound MSG. There's lots of debate as to whether this is good for us or not as it has been considered as an 'excitotoxin' in some research. Excitotoxin's stimulate a certain part of the brain or neurons which would explain the 'ahhh' or 'mmm' reaction but there's some speculation that the amount of excitement to those specific neurons eventually kills them.

Apologies for not being very helpful in your project by the way

reply to post by balon0


Dear balon0,

There is a small chain of restaurants in the Los Angeles area called Umami Burgers. This is my favorite burger in the world. Their web page used to give the history of Umami. Hope it helps.

reply to post by balon0


You should really do your own research and not expect us to do it. The fact you think umami is for "mmm" is very telling. Umami is triggered by glutamate, and the reason umami is it's own taste and not grouped with salty is the fact that the tongue has receptors for L-glutamate.

Umami is best translated as 'savory', not mmm or ahhh. The 'savory' taste in meats, especially those that have been cured, is umami. Many vegetables have umami as well. Your very first experience with umami was when you were suckiing on your mothers teat, breast milk contains umami.

reply to post by balon0

Umami is the Japanese word for delicious and has been described to make one say "ahhh" or "mmm" when one experiences it.

Not sure if this will be helpful or not... the adjective "oishii ne" is commonly used by the Japanese to express pleasure and delight in taste.

It may provide another option in your research - good luck with the project