Taste buds are small colections of cells in your mouth. They help you taste food! Taste buds go through a lot every day and wear out easily. Taste is one of our 5 senses. It is how we think food tastes in our mouth. There are a few types of tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory (umami). We taste these using taste buds that contain different cells that taste each of these tastes that I mentioned earlier. Taste buds have these “hair” like things on top of them. Those microscopic sensitive hairs are called microvilli (pronnounced: mye-kro-VILL-eye). The tiny hairs pickup the tastes when we eat and send the messages to the brain through nerves. That is why they get replaced by a new line of taste buds every 10 days! Taste buds are one of the fastest regenerating parts of our bodies!