Are You a Supertaster?

Some people think broccoli tastes unbearably bitter, and ice cream tastes sickeningly sweet, and lemonade tastes painfully sour. These people are supertasters.

Supertasters have more taste buds than most people. Taste buds detect the sweet, bitter, sour, and salty tastes in food. They're found in the little bumps on our tongues that are called fungiform papillae. Supertasters have more fungiform papillae on their tongues, which means they have more taste buds.

Are you a supertaster? Find out by doing this experiment.

What you need:

• cotton swab
• blue food coloring
• plastic reinforcement ring (used in three hole binders)
• mirror

What to do:

1. Dab blue food coloring on the tip of your tongue with the cotton swab.
2. Place the plastic reinforcement ring on the tip of your tongue.
3. Look in the mirror. Count the number of pink bumps you see inside the ring. The bumps are the fungiform papillae. Each one contains hundreds of taste buds! If you count more than 25 bumps inside the ring, you're a supertaster!