In the last few years, you’ve heard the term “umami” used everywhere from cooking shows to social media. People express the “umami flavor” experience of sushi, mushrooms, meats, vegetables… Umami Umami Umami. So what the heck is it? I’ve lived most of my life without using that word and I wondered what I was missing. Well, basically, it’s just a trendy word to use. Let me explain.

The term ‘umami’ was coined by a professor named Kikunae Ikeda at Japan’s Tokyo Imperial University in 1908. He was working with seaweed and noticed that it’s flavor didn’t fit with the four existing tastes of which he was aware – so he named it ‘umami’. It is generally accepted that the human tongue has five taste modalities, so there you go. Scientists are considering adding ‘spicy’ or ‘pungent’ as a sixth, but we’re not there yet.

So why did I refer to it as ‘trendy’? All the cool people love umami, so surely I must be too old or something. The thing is, the English language already had words for all five tastes. I am sure that cultures and languages all over the planet have their own as well. I was taught that the five tastes are: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and… wait for it… savory! Remember that word? It’s been around for centuries.  English borrows words from other languages all the time, so I am accustomed to that. I just don’t understand why people decided to replace and existing English word with a Japanese one. Trendy.

If the food is not salty, sweet, sour, or bitter – people are calling it umami these days. For some reason. Or savory. Because it is that same thing.