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Each type of taste is located within taste buds on different sections of the tongue. As you chew your food, it mixes with saliva and as it comes in contact with the taste buds, messages are sent to the brain regarding your sense of taste. The brain processes the messages and helps you identify different tastes.
How exactly do your taste buds work? Well, stick out your tongue and look in the mirror. See all those bumps? Those are called papillae (say: puh-PILL-ee), and most of them contain taste buds. Taste buds have very sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli (say: mye-kro-VILL-eye). Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain about how something tastes, so you know if it's sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. The average person has about 10,000 taste buds and they're replaced every 2 weeks or so. But as a person ages, some of those taste cells don't get replaced. An older person may only have 5,000 working taste buds. That's why certain foods may taste stronger to you than they do to adults. Smoking also can reduce the number of taste buds a person has. But before you give taste buds all the credit for your favorite flavors, it's important to thank your nose.