On: I Lost My Sense of Smell in My Twenties. Here’s My Advice to Covid-19 Survivors

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Based on things I've heard but not confirmed, the tongue is only able to meaningfully detect about 4 things and a lot of what we sense as "taste" is actually provided by our olfactory senses.

I had COVID for a while a month or so ago and my sense of smell was gone for about 2 weeks. Completely obliterated. It's like, you think you know what 'total darkness' is like until the first time you're in a cave and someone turns off the lights. It was like that but for smell. I couldn't smell an open bottle of vinegar under my nose.

Anyway, I can confirm that I could only appreciate the basest of flavors. As a food addict, I honestly wish it had been permanent because it removed a whole lot of temptation to eat for entertainment.

[jfengel → AnIdiotOnTheNet]

What you have heard is correct. Taste in itself is done on the tongue, and consists mostly of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. (Though not on different parts of the tongue, as is commonly taught. That's long outdated, and was a misunderstanding from the beginning.) There may be some other taste sensations as well, but not many.

Flavor is taste on the tongue plus the smell of things going through the back of the throat to the nose. The illusion that the flavor is all in the mouth is very, very powerful -- but it's much the same way as looking at something doesn't make you think the object is in your eye. The sense of smell has far, far more shades than taste does -- tens of thousands at a minimum, maybe many more.

Vinegar (especially plain white vinegar) is almost completely a taste -- you sense acidity with the sour receptors on the tongue, and that's all you get. It should taste more or less the same in your mouth, but you might not be able to tell the difference between white vinegar and cider vinegar.