How Aromas Can Translate Into Dollars and Scents

Hold your nose while you’re eating and you miss a lot. That’s because the flavor experience is not limited to what we taste on the tongue. While our taste buds do detect the five sensations—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami—there’s something else going on. And that’s aroma.

In fact, most of what we call taste is really an olfactory experience. Beyond the five taste sensations, all other tastes are the result of the sense of smell, via orthonasal (outside of the mouth) and retronasal (inside t…