Justin Morgan owned a bay colt born in 1789, he named Figure. Figure's ability to outwalk, outtrot, outrun, and outpull other horses was legendary. After Justin Morgan's death, Figure became known by his former owner's name, the Justin Morgan horse.
Part of that may be because our sense of taste is slowly dying. Sadly for the rest of us, our physiology is working against us on nearly every front. As we age, our taste buds stop regenerating, and our sense of smell dulls. An average adult taster might have 10,000 taste buds in his or her mouth. A supertasterâone of those 15 to 25 percent of the population whose tongue is extra sensitiveâmight be gifted with twice as many. A non-taster, meanwhile, might have to get by with half the norm.
Do you hate the taste of broccoli? Or think that grapefruit is extremely bitter? If so, you may be able to blame it on your taste buds! Taste buds, located on small bumps on the tongue called fungiform papillae, are each made up of about 50 to 150 taste receptor cells. On the surface of these cells are receptors that bind to small molecules related to flavor. Each receptor is best at sensing a single flavor: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami. The sum total of these sensations is the taste of the food. The number of taste buds varies from person to person. People who have relatively more taste buds are called supertasters.