What are sweet sour salty and bitter?

Sweet, sour, salty, and bitter are the four basic tastes that humans can perceive. Sweetness is often associated with sugar, sourness with acids, saltiness with sodium chloride, and bitterness with alkaloids. These tastes can be combined to create a wide variety of flavors. For example, sweet and sour is a common combination found in many dishes from around the world, while bitter and salty can be found in dark chocolate.