Comments on: Sour Sensation

By: Noelle

Noelle — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:11:33 +0000

I’d like to know what causes the mouth to pucker in the first place. Someone said it was because some molecules or cells weren’t compatible with those found in the mouth. I really wished I had listened better, but I was distracted by my child.

By: Brandon Dilbeck

Brandon Dilbeck — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:32:55 +0000

Hey, I took that picture of the lemon drops! I never expected anyone to use it like this! Cool! But for the record, the lemon drops in that picture aren’t really very sour.

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:16:43 +0000

Hmm. Are you asking if oral hygiene developed as a means to prevent the dulling of our sense of taste? I must look into the matter; perhaps we can continue this conversation in another setting, Mr. B. Fro.

By: BFro

BFro — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:15:03 +0000

Some say that if you brush your tongue too often your taste buds lose their acute senses. Is there any truth to this Ms. Leibach? According to a lil’ smarty on the Tonight Show, the tongue is like a shag carpet. He says to brush it well, or else we’ll smell you from across the room. And that will make anyone seem unattractive. Is there a hidden evolutionary element at play here? Oral hygiene v. Sense of taste. (And of course, I have no idea what I’m talking about)

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 20:49:24 +0000

I see an analogy with the joy of sour candy to the thrill of riding a rollercoaster or watching a horror movie. The adrenaline rush is intended to help you run from danger or land on your feet, but for some reason we find it fun.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:37:46 +0000

Sweet or Sour? Sometimes there’s just no accounting for taste. Like relationships….you might find someone just so amazing, funny, smart, beautiful…that you can’t stop thinking about them….but things don’t quite fall into place, you make a mistake, or you’re just not the right person for that moment in time….leaving behind that sour taste of disappointment that only time can wash away.

By: RockMonkey

RockMonkey — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 15:43:52 +0000

Well, rrruuPAL. You raise a good point. As one of the researchers with whom I spoke said, sometimes sour isn’t such a terrible taste when mixed with other flavors–like sweet stuff (Sour Patch Kids are coated in sugar, for example). But you do have to wonder–if sourness is masked too much by another taste, could you end up ingesting too much acid because the “warning signal” has been subdued?

By: Rupal

Rupal — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:09:30 +0000

It’s interesting then that there is a wide array of children’s candy that is sour. It’s difficult to reconcile ’sour as a warning’ with ’sour as a delicious treat for kids’, as biologically, kids would need the most warning to learn to stay away from harmful foods.