Sixth 'Taste' Discovered - Calcium

[Kent Wang]

From Live Science:

The capability to taste calcium has now been discovered in mice. With these rodents and humans sharing many of the same genes, the new finding suggests that people might also have such a taste.

...

"Calcium tastes calcium-y," Tordoff said. "There isn't a better word for it. It is bitter, perhaps even a little sour. But it's much more because there are actual receptors for calcium, not just bitter or sour compounds."

[Peter the eater]

I'm not at all surprised there may be calcium receptors on my tongue. It took science a whole century to dispose of the bogus tongue map and its taste zones. I suspect the tongue-brain relationship is way more complex than we realize.

[fendi_pilot]

if you've tasted calcium then you know it isn't a pleasant taste. it does taste very bitter and slightly sour without perhaps being either entirely. this could open the door to a myriad of other 'tastes' though if it doesn't taste good or have the potential to be good in some even bizarre way, i'm not sure i really care to open that door. (i.e.) i can just imagine there being a taste receptor for feces or something - " tastes terrible really, not quite sour or bitter but yet very very shitty"