Kids learned from textbooks and teachers that sweet tastes were detected on the tongue tip, salty on the sides, bitter in the back, and sour elsewhere.
All taste receptors for all flavors are distributed across the entire tongue. Early 20th-century misinterpretations of a 1901 German thesis created the 'tongue map' diagram that appeared in textbooks for decades. Sensitivity to different tastes varies slightly by location, but the variation is so minor it's undetectable in practice. Every part of your tongue can taste every flavor equally well.
Reception
Sources
- Snopes: Tongue Taste Map PRIMARY
- Wikipedia: Taste Buds REFERENCE
- Scientific American: Taste Map Myth REFERENCE