umami

(noun)

One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses, and meats.

Related Terms

Examples of umami in the following topics:

  • Gustation: Taste Buds and Taste

    • There are five main tastes: bitter, salty, sweet, sour, and umami (savory).
    • Recently, umami, which is the Japanese word for "savory," was added to this list of basic tastes.
    • Bitter, sweet, and umami tastes use similar mechanisms based on a G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR.
    • Umami is the newest receptor to be recognized by western scientists in the family of basic tastes.
    • It is thought that umami receptors act similarly to bitter and sweet receptors (involving GPCRs), but very little is known about their actual function.