your sense of taste

Taste buds probably play the most important part in helping you enjoy the many flavors of food. 

 Your taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. 

 The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue; 

the sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue;

 and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.

Everyone's tastes are different. In fact, your tastes will change as you get older.
When you were a baby, you had taste buds, not only on your tongue, but on the sides and roof of your mouth. This means you were very sensitive to different foods.

As you grew, the taste buds began to disappear from the sides and roof of your mouth, leaving taste buds mostly on your tongue.

As you get older, your taste buds will become even less sensitive, so you will be more likely to eat foods that you thought were too strong as a child.


source: http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/taste/taste.html