I was warned that I could permanently lose my sense of taste by the RO when they explain all the risks to you before radiation (interestingly he never warned me I could possibly lose the ability to *swallow*, which is becoming a major issue for me right now) and so I was braced for the worst but so far it seems I have at least some taste sense left. Salty and savory(savory is a fifth taste sense that comes from the tongue, not the nose, and it is what makes meat taste good to us--most exemplified by how meat seems to taste better with MSG--which brings out the savory taste), in particular, seem to be functioning about normally. I haven't really done too many things that would be sour or bitter so I can't say about those yet--and I definitely am missing most of my sweet taste sense. As Gail mentioned, all the other complexities of what we experience as the flavor of things really come from odors and those are detected by smell--not your taste buds.