And I Can Hear, See, Smell, Touch, TASTE!

Your Messages - Theme for Day 16

He keeps the beer bottle top in the pocket of his winter coat. Each time he slips his hand in, away from the cold, he remembers the taste of him.

Two responses today. The first one's a bit obvious:

Emptying her coat pockets revealed: a biro, some loose change, gloves, countless shredded tissues. A tattered piece of paper fluttered to the floor. His telephone number. Dare she call? Later.

I prefer the theme for the second one, but had real difficulty in restricting it to 30 words. With further research and time, I think it might be worth expanding into a 300 word response:

The Chinese five elements system defines taste as sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent. My western tongue needs to find the elusive pungency, to let it explode in my mouth.

It might have been better as:

The Chinese five elements system defines taste as sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent. My western tongue needs to find the fifth element, to let it explode in my mouth.

I don't know - the first version shows pungency isn't recognised as a taste in the west, the second attempt has more of a mystery to it. However I'm not sure about using 'fifth element' - is it a bit too repetitive seeing the first sentence contains the words 'five elements system'? I've let my comment on Your Messages stay with my original version.