Our saliva is the key part in our ability to experience the food’s taste. It might sound odd, but without the saliva we won’t distinguish any taste.
We all know our tongue has different receptors for different tastes : salty, sweet, bitter and sour. The receptors for sweet detection are located just at the tip of the tongue while the others are grouped beyond them with the bitter receptors located at the back of the tongue. However, those receptors won’t work without a certain amount of liquid.
If there isn't any liquid, the taste won’t bind with the receptor molecules and the food will be plain and tasteless. Water may serve as the liquid for the chemoreceptors but saliva is better because it contains amylase which is related to sugar and carbohydrates. Thus, if there was no saliva, the sweet food won’t taste the same. And if there wasn't any liquid, all kinds of food would be tasteless.
SOURCE: [factswt.com]
