A new basic taste joins sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami

The article actually says that sour receptors detect ammonium chloride. This means that there is no new taste. For there to be a new one, there would need to be a kind of receptor which is activated while the rest of them are inactive.

&gt; which gives it its distinct flavor: bitter, salty, and a little bit sour.<p>Doesn&#x27;t describing it in terms of the other basic tastes undermine the main point somewhat?<p>Is this a limitation of using language to describe a new sensory channel? Or is it somehow different to the other basic tastes (it seems like the mechanism is slightly different)?

In Finland, we call this taste the taste of &quot;salmiakki&quot; or &quot;salmiak salt&quot; in English. It&#x27;s a popular taste in gummy-like candies, but it&#x27;s an acquired taste. Most people who taste it for the first time as adults, hate it.

The paper:<p><i>The proton channel OTOP1 is a sensor for the taste of ammonium chloride</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41467-023-41637-4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41467-023-41637-4</a> (web layout)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41467-023-41637-4.epdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41467-023-41637-4.epdf</a> (print layout)

Better link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;neurosciencenews.com&#x2F;ammonium-sixth-taste-25922&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;neurosciencenews.com&#x2F;ammonium-sixth-taste-25922&#x2F;</a>

The very notion of &quot;base tastes&quot; is confusing. It&#x27;s not like you can decompose every taste into <i>just</i> these 5 base tastes, i.e. a strawberry taste. Yes, they are omnipresent and prominent, but why single them out?

Thanks for the cleaner links, @tpmx &amp; @pitdicker<p>I&#x27;m surprised there hasn&#x27;t been a rush to claim the rights to naming this basic taste something more &quot;palatable&quot; &lt;ducks&gt;