Which nerve carries taste from the posterior tongue?

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Taste from the posterior third of the tongue is carried by the glossopharyngeal nerve. This cranial nerve provides taste fibers from that region (special visceral afferent) which travel to the solitary nucleus in the brainstem and then onward to gustatory cortex. The chorda tympani, a branch of the facial nerve, carries taste from the anterior two-thirds of the tongue, while the lingual nerve handles general sensation there but not taste. The facial nerve’s role in taste is via the chorda tympani for the front part of the tongue, not the back. So the posterior tongue’s taste signal specifically travels with the glossopharyngeal nerve.