Like other carnivores, cats prefer salty, bitter and sour foods, while eschewing sweets. They have trouble digesting sugar and often end up with diarrhea when they eat it. In general, though, cats prefer the fats and amino acids found in meat, though they often eat only certain parts of an animal, based on taste, or will choose a certain dry cat food by taste, if it has little aroma. When a cat does overrule its better judgment and samples something unpleasant or poisonous, it will salivate heavily to expel the offending tidbit. Domestic cats sometimes react to medicines this way.
Cat tongues are more than mere organs of taste, though.
Anyone who has ever been treated to a licking knows that cats tongues are rough.