The digestive effect, vipaka, is reduced from six tastes to three. Sweet and salty flavours have a sweet vipaka, sour flavours have a sour vipaka, while bitter, astringent and pungent flavours have a pungent vipaka. These post-digestive effects are related to the process of digestion and breakdown, the end result of digestion.

The first stage of digestion takes place in the mouth and stomach: moistening, in which the sweet taste predominates. – kapha
The second stage of digestion takes place in the stomach and small intestine: heating is dominated by sour and acidic flavours respectively. – pitta
The third stage takes place in the large intestine: drying, with a predominantly spicy taste. – vata