酸味 (suān wèi) literally combines 酸 (suān), meaning 'sour', and 味 (wèi), meaning 'taste' or 'flavor'. Together, it refers specifically to the sour taste sensation — one of the five basic tastes in Chinese sensory vocabulary (alongside sweet, bitter, salty, and umami). It describes the sharp, tangy, or acidic flavor found in foods like lemons, vinegar, unripe fruit, or fermented dishes.

This term is commonly used in food description, cooking instructions, medical contexts (e.g., when patients report tasting sourness due to acid reflux), and sensory education. Unlike the adjective 酸 (suān), which can also mean 'embarrassed' or 'sentimental' in figurative usage, 酸味 is strictly sensory and objective — it always refers to actual gustatory experience, never emotion or metaphor.