Taste maps and children

[ChrisTaylor]

I'm a grade one teacher and, at present, my class is learning about senses. When we looked at our sense of smell the children described the smells of various spices, herbs and other foodstuffs I brought into the classroom (ranging from coffee to lavender to beetroot powder). Tomorrow we're looking at taste. My idea is to create a simple flavour map and offer a variety of 'tastings': some of which slot neatly into, say, 'salty' (i.e. plain potato crisps) along with some that'll slot into more than one category (balsamic vinegar or chinotto). None of my treasures have any allergies, so that's not something I need to think about at all. I do need to think about avoiding crazily intense and very foreign taste sensations (i.e. straight fish sauce) as, really, they're 6-8 years old and only one or two of them (out of 23) would've eaten anything like fish sauce before. I want to avoid things I need to cook or otherwise spend time preparing. I'm looking for more ideas to flesh out my list.

As it stands I have:

• lemon juice
• mandarin
• balsamic vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce
• molasses
• maple syrup
• Vegemite
• rocket/arugula (I'd like to use radicchio but it's not readily available anywhere near work)
• chinotto
• dark chocolate
• white chocolate
• crisps or pretzels

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Radishes might also fit there, as would carrots - both live on the spicy-sweet end of the spectrum. Raw beetroot is another interesting option to consider, as are dandelion greens for the bitter end of the spectrum.

[Smithy]

Soy sauce? A mild mustard? Grapes or grape juice or another fruit juice, to compare with the mandarin?

[SylviaLovegren]

Licorice or anise might be interesting.

[JAZ]

I'm not sure if this would fit in, but if you want to show the way different tastes affect each other, try letting them taste grapefruit alone, then with a pinch of sugar, then with a pinch of salt. We've done that for adult taste "labs" and our students are always amazed by the way the salt mutes the bitterness of the grapefruit, so that it seems much sweeter than it does with the sugar, which just seems to highlight how acidic and bitter the grapefruit is.

[ChrisTaylor]

Our final list:

• lemon juice
• orange juice
• Worcestershire sauce
• balsamic vinegar
• tomato sauce
• Vegemite
• rocket
• chinotto
• white chocolate
• dark chocolate (70%)
• molasses
• maple syrup
• pretzels (the dry snack food kind, not the baked foodstuff

Some amusing reactions to chinotto, dark chocolate and Worcestershire sauce. >_>