Flavors are key to enjoying food and beverages, whether naturally occurring or added as ingredients. Flavor ingredients take many forms including liquids, solids and gases. We commonly think of flavors as tasted by the tongue, but most of what we sense as flavor is actually aroma, a stimulation of our olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity. The taste buds on the tongue play a role in sensing sweet, sour, salt and bitter sensations, but flavors and aromas are much more complex. Color, temperature and texture also play roles in flavor perception.