Six Tastes

Ayurveda attributes a great del of action to taste. See: 6 (Therapeutic Action of Taste in Ayurveda) for a detailed discussion. In short, Food and herbs in Ayurveda are classified to their taste because eacht taste has special effect on your physical and mental state.

The tastes are:
1 - Sweet / Bland
(sugar, honey, white bread, rice, patato)
2 - Salty
(salt, soja sauce, seaweed)
3 - Sour / Acidic
(vinegar, lemon, alcohol)
4 - Bitter / Tart
(rhubarb, turmeric)
5 - Pungent / Hot
(chili, pepper, mustard)
6- Astringent
(lettuce, spinach)

These six tastes are related to the five states of matter.

See table T002 Qualities of the Six Tastes

An Ayurvedic rule of thumb is that in each each all six tastes should be present. Your Dosha (see: Basic constitutions (humors): overview) determines the mix of tastes in your diet to compensate for imbalances (see: balance versus imbalance).