Incredible facts
Many of us can't imagine a morning without the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. But many people were probably a little disappointed that the taste of coffee was not as intoxicating as its smell, and now scientists have found an explanation for this.
When we swallow a drink, it sends bad breath to the back of the nose, activating a second sense of smell in the brain, which is less receptive to taste, which is less satisfying.
Conversely, some cheeses that have a seemingly unpleasant smell turn out to be delicious, as their aroma seems more pleasant when it comes out of the nose.
Professor Barry Smith from the University of London explained that humans have two types of sense of smell.
“One type of sense of smell is when you breathe in something from outside, and another is when air leaves you through your nasal passages and exhales through your nose,” Smith said.
The phenomenon is due to the fact that although we have receptors on our tongue, 80 percent of what we think of as taste actually passes through the olfactory receptors in the nose.
The receptors that send messages to our brains respond to odors in different ways, depending on which direction they're moving in.
For example, Epuas cheese does not smell very pleasant, but as soon as it is in your mouth, you start to smell the aroma coming out of your nose and it seems delicious to us.
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee is simply great, but its taste can rarely be compared to its smell.
Only two known scents, chocolate and lavender, are perceived in the same way when they pass through the nose from outside or from within.
In the case of coffee, the taste is also smoothed out by the fact that 300 of the 631 substances that form its complex aroma are washed away by saliva, which changes its taste after we take a sip of this drink.