Why do we taste only when we breathe?

Question

Why is it that we really don't taste anything unless we inhale or exhale from our nose at the same time?

I never thought about it until today and it's a little weird. If you plug your nose or don't breathe, whatever in your mouth will have little or no taste at all.

What really makes us "taste" then? Does our tongue just transmit signals to our nose-area to represent taste? Why must we breathe in order to taste?

Answer 1

The tongue only senses a small amount of flavor compounds: sweet, sour, salty, bitter
We detect the complex components of flavor in our noses. There are brain cells there which are stimulated by the components of food that become airborne as we chew.