Taste Facts

Sago worms taste like bacon when roasted.

The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days.

Girls have a better sense of taste than boys, requiring less intensity to detect sweet and sour flavors.

Smokers are 36% more likely to add sugar to their meals than non-smokers, despite eating fewer sweet snacks.

There's a mushroom that tastes like chicken and grows in the wild throughout much of the world.

Food can only be tasted if it is mixed with saliva.

An apple and a potato taste nearly identical if you eat them with your nose plugged, because what we call 'taste' is actually 80% smell.

A marine catfish can taste with any part of its body.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

The average tastebud lives only 10 days before it dies and is replaced by a new one.

A man named John Harrison has a job tasting ice cream. He has tasted samples of over 200 million gallons of ice cream and his taste buds are insured for $1 million.

There is a fruit called the Miracle Berry that, when eaten, causes sour foods to taste sweet for up to an hour, and has been studied as a sugar-free alternative for people managing diabetes and undergoing chemotherapy.

Some people can taste words—a rare phenomenon called lexical-gustatory synesthesia, where hearing or reading certain words triggers unique flavors in their mouths.