How Does Supertasters Work?

Supertasters are people who can taste things way better than most people because they have extra taste buds on their tongues.

Imagine your tongue is like a pizza, it has little spots that help you tell the difference between sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (that's the fancy word for "savory," like in meat or mushrooms). Most people have about 5,000 of these spots. But supertasters have way more, up to 10,000 or even 15,000!

Because they have so many taste buds, supertasters can notice tiny differences in food. To them, a regular cookie might taste like a normal cookie, but to someone else, it could feel like eating a whole bag of cookies at once.

It’s kind of like having super hearing, if you can hear every whisper in the room, you’re more aware of sounds around you. Supertasters are just more aware of what they're eating, which means some foods might even taste too strong for them!