Those little pink and white bumps you do see on your tongue are actually called papillae, hair-like projections that taste buds rest atop. Each has an average of six taste buds buried inside its surface tissue. Most of your taste buds cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Primary ones are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Other kinds of taste are combinations of these. The tip of the tongue is responsible for sweet and salty flavors of food. The sides are sensitive for sour and the back of the tongue is for bitter taste [ 1 ]. How do we taste our food?
The back our tongues can sense bitterness. Salty foods can be identified at the sides of our tongue while sour taste can be sensed on the lateral side of the tongue. Our tongue is composed of approximately 2,000 to 8,000 of taste buds. These tiny taste receptors are large in number indeed and can be irritated and look swollen.