You’ve heard of the five tastes

(they’re sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami)

Turns out, flavor is taste, but never without smell

Fruity, malty, grassy, roasty, floral, herbal, funky?

The kaleidscope of flavor is mostly from things you smell.

You smell every time you eat.

Not just sniffing (or, Orthonasal Olfaction)

Flavors float up the back of your throat and enter your nose backwards. Feels like it’s happening on your tongue, but it’s a trick, it’s in your nose, like an optical illusion (a gustatory illusion?)

That’s Retronasal Olfaction, babey:

smelling, but backwards. The personality and finer details of all the flavors you love, coming home through the back door.