Taste buds are sensory organs present on your tongue that allow you to perceive sweet, salty, sour, and bitter flavors. Each taste bud contains hundreds of cells including nerve endings that transmit signals through to the brain when you eat something tasty! Here is what some other types of cells found in taste buds look like under the microscope: Sweeteners include sugar, honey, and saccharin. Table salt consists of sodium chloride. Acidifiers include lemon, lime, vinegar, and fruit juices. Sour foods include lemons, limes, grapes, and strawberries. Bitter foods include spinach, radishes, and horseradish. Pungent foods contain spicy flavors such as chili peppers, curry powder, and black pepper. Salty foods include sea water, fish, and oysters. Taste buds are located on the top of your tongue behind the tongue root. There are three main types of taste buds: papillae, fungiform, and foliate. Papillae are small raised plates that taste acids and help digest food. Fungiform taste buds resemble a mushroom with small caps at the end of long branches. They are most common on the tongue's surface and back of the mouth.