What is the relationship between taste and smell?

Our mouth and nose work together in order to provide us with the sensation of different tastes. In fact, the episode "Taste and Smell" by Newton’s Apple states that “seventy to seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Taste buds allow us to perceive only bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors.” However, foods often provide us with a complexity of tastes that are a combination of these four basic categories of taste.

The odor molecules from the foods that reach our noses provide us with most of our taste sensations. When food is placed in a mouth, these odor molecules enter the passageway that is found between the nose and mouth. The odor molecules then reach the olfactory receptors that are located behind the bridge of the nose at the top of the nasal cavity that lies under the olfactory bulbs of the brain. The olfactory bulb of the brain is the region of the vertebrae forebrain that allows different smells to be distinguished.