Although such serious problems are rare, you should report any change in taste or smell to your health care provider. Taste buds are special structures that pick up the taste of chemicals responsible for flavors when food or drink is dissolved in saliva. Most of your taste buds are on your tongue. There are a few in the back of your mouth. The sense of taste is not as well developed as the sense of smell.
Taste buds can only distinguish between salty, sweet, sour, and bitter tastes.
Flavors can be distinguished because the sense of taste works with the sense of smell. Loss of the sense of smell almost always results in loss of the ability to taste. Your sense of taste is at its keenest when you are between 30 and 60 years old. Starting at about age 60, there is a normal decline in the ability to taste, especially in the ability to taste sour and bitter. The ability to taste salty and sweet also diminishes, but less so.