DAVID POGUE (New York Times Technology Columnist): To get a better understanding of the difference between taste and flavor, I'm having my tongue examined by the guru of taste: Linda Bartoshuk, of the University of Florida.
LINDA BARTOSHUK (Smell and Taste Center, University of Florida): You never see taste buds. They are not visible on the tongue. Taste buds are buried in the tissue of this little mushroom-like structure, fungiform papillae.
DAVID POGUE: Do I have that?
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Yes.
DAVID POGUE: Is there a cure for it?
LINDA BARTOSHUK: You don't want a cure for it.
DAVID POGUE: Okay.
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Those things are really good.
DAVID POGUE: The surface of your tongue is covered with mushroom-shaped structures called fungiform papillae, which house the taste buds.
Bartoshuk uses a card with a hole about the size of a pea, and then counts the number of spots on my tongue. Her blue dye reveals the fungiform papillae.
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Oh, wow.
DAVID POGUE: Some people taste things more strongly for the simple reason that they have more taste buds. Bartoshuk calls them "supertasters."
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Wow. You are up between 50 and 60 fungiform papillae. This is very, very high.
DAVID POGUE: (With mouth open trying to say "Really?") Weawwy?
LINDA BARTOSHUK: From what I can see now, you definitely look like a supertaster. So that's a pretty well-endowed tongue.
DAVID POGUE: Sweet! Literally. To see how it works, let's zoom into a taste bud, where there is a sweet receptor. If we drink some of that orange apple juice, the sugar molecules in it bind with a sweet receptor. That then sets off a series of chain reactions that sends a signal to the brain that you are eating something sweet.
LINDA BARTOSHUK: When you eat a piece of candy, you're experiencing more sweet than I am. And you have, not only more taste buds, but you, in addition, have more pain fibers, because every taste bud is surrounded by a basket of pain fibers. So if you eat jalapeño peppers, you are going to be at least twice, perhaps three times as intense burning as I would get.
DAVID POGUE: That explains so much. I can't tell you the number of dinners I have had where everyone is like, "Oh, you are so a hot pepper wuss, Pogue."
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Yeah.
DAVID POGUE: It's not that. It is just that I am suffering four times more!
LINDA BARTOSHUK: Yes, yes. You are experiencing considerably more burn.
DAVID POGUE: I think I got it all!