Monosaccharides have the least number of rings, 1, and therefore are sweeter, unlike the polysaccharides with many rings, 3 or more that are not sweet, whereas the disaccharides are somewhere in between with 2 rings. The number of rings that affects the taste, also affects the structure of the carbohydrates, and how cells and organisms use them. Producers use carbohydrates to store energy, while consumers use it as their main source of energy.
Not all testers gave each sample the same rating, but they were fairly close. The reasons could have been that some testers had slightly contaminated the samples with others by not wiping their fingers after tasting each sample, forgetting to take sips of water between tastes, resulting in an alteration of the flavor with the after taste of a previous substance, or by mixing substances unknowingly by not wiping the spoon off before placing each sample on the paper towel.
Humans taste sweetness by the response of their taste receptors. When a sweet substance like sugar is on the tip of the tongue, receptor proteins on the outer tips of our taste cells are stimulated. These taste cells are located in the tastebuds, that contain 50-100 taste cells while only 25% of the cells respond to this sweetness in the central nervous system. Monosaccharides and disaccharide sweetners like glucose, fructose, and sucrose, are sweet compounds that respond to the metabolic condition of the taste cells. This isn't just an oral response, because the stimulation sends out hormones and sends signals to the brain.
Sources:
"Getting a Sense of How We Taste Sweetness." NPR. NPR, 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <http://www.npr.org/2011/03/11/134459338/Getting-a-Sense-of-How-We-Taste-Sweetness>.
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