Tasting Using Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in umami. Bite-size cherry tomatoes especially are perfect when first acquiring an understanding of umami. To begin, remove the stem and pop the tomato in your mouth. Chew it about thirty times, taking your time to sense the changing taste on your tongue. First you will probably detect sour and sweet tastes, along with the distinctive grassy aroma of tomatoes. After chewing thirty times, do you notice a faint taste lingering on your tongue? That taste is umami. The umami component of cherry tomatoes is glutamate. You will probably feel yourself continuing to produce saliva even after swallowing the tomato. As mentioned earlier, umami promotes salivation. The same experience can be obtained using dried tomato or salt-free tomato paste.