Yum… or Yuck!
Recently, I was filling out an SAT practice test when a sudden idea came to me: what is the sweetest thing in the world. For those of you that know the practice test question I’m talking about, I learned that there are 5 basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
So: what are the superfluities of all of them? Let’s find out!
Sweetness
The sweetest thing in the world? Turns out its called Lugduname, with a sweetness of over 220,000 times more than that of white sugar, also known as sucrose! But the real question: can you eat it? Well…not legally. So what’s the sweetest thing you can have legally? Well at the much less exciting 20,000 times: Advantame. In fact, chances are you’ve already tried it!
Chemicals!
Sourness
Some love it, some hate it. I think everyone will hate this though: fumaric acid. Now technically, sourness is dependent on pH. And yes, of course, there are some chemicals with a lower pH. And yes! Maybe that chemical would be more sour, but I’m setting a strict rule that you must have no holes through you afterwards. This acid is almost 2x as sour as citric acid.
Saltiest
Now I did try to find the saltiest thing, but instead I found a deeper rabbit-hole than I had wanted to go down. Some say ammonium chloride, but some also say that ammonium chloride provides a “sixth basic taste.” So sadly, the best answer seems to be basic table salt—sodium chloride.
Oops!
Bitter
Luckily, this is one of the flavors we’ve worked the most to create. Bitterants are very common to discourage people from eating anything. What we made is denatonium benzoate. It’s pretty bitter, and it turns out you can buy it online and try it yourself (though that isn’t health advice)!
Umami
Now I’m sure some of you can guess the answer. Ready? 3…2…1…monosodium glutamate. Yep. Just basic MSG. Surprisingly little to say here.
Some odd looking crystals huh?
Conclusions
If you want to taste these, I guess you can find them online.
Have a sweet day,
Ilan Bernstein