flavors

Flavors are the sensory perceptions your brain experiences when tasting food or drinks, created by chemicals that stimulate taste buds and smell receptors. Taste buds detect basic tastes like sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, while the sense of smell identifies complex flavors from aroma molecules. Together, these senses combine to form the overall flavor you perceive, which is influenced by ingredients, preparation, temperature, and individual physiology. Essentially, flavor is the brain’s interpretation of chemical signals from both taste and smell that make eating enjoyable and varied.