A Mouthful of What?

Keith loaned me this book, "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" by Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker.  Keith thought I would be particularly interested in "The Ketchup Conundrum," since I grew up as a Heinz girl.  Gladwell writes like I take photographs.  He was investigating why there are now a gazillion types of mustard, but Heinz is still the #1 Ketchup. 

It surprised me to learn that in the late 1800's Henry J. Heinz was one of the renegade ketchup makers intent on safe food, so he changed the recipe.   Of course most food is a blend of tastes.  When I went to school tastes were listed as salty, sweet, sour and bitter.  But here's the kicker:  umami.

 "Umami is the proteiny, full-bodied taste of chicken soup or cured meat or fish stock or aged cheese or mother's milk or soy sauce or mushrooms or seaweed or cooked tomato.  Umami adds body."  The gist of the article is that Heinz Ketchup has umami and other brands don't come close.  Umami sounds obscene, especially for something in your mouth.  But I can get it--it's why I add table cream to my Atkins diet chocolate shakes.  Otherwise they taste thin.

This opens a whole world of taste distinctions.  What else besides Heinz Ketchup is the Queen of Umami?   And what about the low-carb Reduced Sugar Heinz Ketchup?  Is it still a mouthful of umami?  You tell me.