Senses Experiment: Tasting - With Your Nose?

How your sense of smell helps you taste foods. Without your nose, you may not be able to tell the difference between foods — especially if the foods all have the same texture (for instance, jelly beans with various flavors, gloppy yogurt and pudding, or slices of different fruits and vegetables).

• A grown-up to help
• A friend or two
• A blindfold
• Foods to taste, such as different flavored jelly beans, different fruit and vegetable slices, or a variety of yogurts and puddings
• Spoons, if necessary
• A cup of drinking water for everyone

1. Blindfold a friend.
2. Ask your friend to pinch his or her nose.
3. Offer your friend one flavor of the food at a time.
4. Can he or she identify it? (Your friend might want a drink of water between the different foods.)
5. Offer the same food and tell your friend to unpinch his or her nose. Now does your friend know what it is?

Your Nose
Your Tongue