- DAIRY PRODUCTS - WEB EXCLUSIVES - BUYERS GUIDE So what
actually is savory? That question is best answered by saying
what savory is not, and that is sweet. When you look at the five
human tastes — bitter, salty, sweet, sour and umami — savory is
closest to umami, but also can possess some salty, bitter and
sour, just never sweet. Savory is not a stand-alone taste. There
are only the five. Rather, it is a flavor profile, one that can
also include other flavor sensations such as astringency and
heat. Umami has only become accepted as a basic taste in recent
years, and still many scientists have not embraced its
inclusion. The reason is that, for the most part, umami can, at
best, be described as not salty, not sour, not sweet and not
bitter. So, if it’s not one of those four, by default, the taste
is umami. Umami has been understood in China and Japan for more
than a millennium. There is no simple definition for umami, but
it is generally recognized as being the meaty or brown tastes
that round out other flavo