Taste the Flavor

What exactly goes on in your mouth and the brain when you are eating food and are able to savor it? Is it just your tongue in play? Or, as is typical with most things we note, more than one sensory organ comes into play?

Turns out, it is both.

Rewinding a bit to the sensory organs of the tongue and nose...
the tongue can distinguish from the four tastes - sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
the nose distinguishes from among about 10,000 different scents/smells. This we all know...

But when we savor food, what really is happening is the tongue gets the taste of the food...sweet or salty or whatever, and the nose gets a feel for the aroma, the smell of the food.

The combination...the flavor of the food. Excellent smells enhance the flavor of food, and that possibly explains the evolution of the various condiments and spices in the different ethnic foods around the world.

So, doesn't that mean that a severe cold that causes the nasal blockage with phlegm will prevent us from enjoying the sights and smells around us? If you said no, then maybe you are some paranormal creature who can smell the smells through some other extraneous means :D