Test (and trick) your tastebuds, looking at the relationship between taste and smell.
What you need:
- black peppercorns
What to do:
- Tightly hold your nose.
- Put a peppercorn in your mouth.
- Bite the peppercorn between your teeth. What do you taste?
- Now let go of your nose. What do you taste now?
What happens:
When you hold your nose, you can’t taste anything. When you let your nose go, you will suddenly be able to taste the pepper (have a glass of water handy). Your tongue only detects a small amount of the things we taste – the rest comes from smelling them. You can try this with other foods and you might think that they taste different, or that they taste like something else. Holding your nose won’t fully stop you from tasting things, but it should stop you from detecting the pepper fairly well.
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