we can detect four tastes: sour, salty, sweet, and bitter. Taste scientists (yes, there is such a thing) identified a fifth taste, umami, which detects the presence of an amino acid, glutamic acid, that is typically described as a meaty or brothy taste. We encounter it in meats, fish, mushrooms, and soy sauce, and it is also present in breast milk in about the same proportion as in soup broths.
