How to Tell If You're a Supertaster

[steve2470]

Last edited Sun Nov 19, 2017, 05:21 PM - Edit history (1)

http://nautil.us/issue/54/the-unspoken/how-to-tell-if-youre-a-supertaster

Most humans can be placed into three major categories of tasters—nontasters, tasters, and supertasters, roughly in the ratio of 25 percent: 50 percent: 25 percent. There is also a small percentage (less than 1 percent) of humanity categorized in a super-supertaster category. Supertasters are mostly women, and people of European ancestry are usually not supertasters. So what exactly is a supertaster? You might think that a supertaster would have a lot of fun eating and drinking, but it’s more like the opposite. Because supertasters experience tastes more intensely than nontasters and tasters, the effects of different tastes detected by tongues of supertasters are amplified relative to the nontasters and tasters. Super-supertasters have it even worse than supertasters. Taste is a good case of “more is not better.”

The best way to describe the differences between the categories of tasting is to take one of my favorite beverages to taste—beer—and explain how each of the categories of tasting will respond to this beverage. The Master Brewers Association of the Americas recommend what is called the American Society of Brewing Chemists flavor wheel to help its members assess the taste of their brews. The flavor wheel was created by a coauthor of Sensory Evaluation Techniques, first published in the 1970s and now in its fifth edition. Morten Meilgaard, a professor of the senses and how to measure them, created the taste wheel to lend a more quantitative aspect to beer tasting.



The taste wheel is quite complex and has gone through many iterations since Meilgaard created it, but it does focus on the complexities of the perception of beer. Examples of the more than 100 possible categories of taste include grapefruit, caramel, farmyard, funky, burnt tire, and baby sick/diapers (which I hope never to taste). It is safe to say that these tastes are the result of many factors, but they all emanate from the very simple contents of beer. In fact, to protect the simple contents of beer, in 1516 Germans created the Bavarian Beer Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot. The purity law forbids any beverage labeled “beer” to be made with anything but hops, water, and barley. Although yeast is needed in brewing, it is a microbe, and was obviously not recognized as an ingredient 500 years ago. So, the modern concept of taste in most classical beers comes from only four ingredients. The most interesting aspect of the taste of beer, at least to me, comes from the hops and the sugars in the brew, and of course the alcohol that is the product of fermentation implemented by yeast on the sugars from grain.

Although beer is probably several millennia old, hops have been a part of brewing beer for a little more than a millennium. Its widespread use began in the last 800 years in Germany and was cemented in brewing technology with the invention of India pale ale (IPA) in the early to mid 19th century. With the modern advent of microbreweries and the development of custom-made hoppy beers such as the many IPAs that are on the market, this beverage becomes one that has a wide range of bitterness. It might be surprising to note that hops were first used as a preservative in beers. The bitter taste from hops is an afterthought. The manipulation of hops today as an integral ingredient in producing craft beers makes for some pretty wildly hoppy beers. (All of which I enjoy immensely, making me more than likely a normal taster.)

[sandensea]

1. Women have much more developed taste buds, generally.

My girlfriend can rattle off every detail, nouance, and bouquet of a Malbec. To me, a red wine is a red wine.

[CrispyQ]

3. I accidentally bought coconut almond milk & made potato soup with it.

Retch! It was awful. My husband couldn't taste the coconut at all & saved the day.

[sandensea]

4. There you have it.

[3catwoman3]

30. That does sound...

...quite disgusting - LOL!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I might be; I don't like beer at all because it's so bitter.

I also loathe some other foods because they taste unbearably bitter to me: especially onions and most cruciform vegetables (cauliflower, cabbage, especially Brussels sprouts). On the other hand, my ancestry is entirely European, so maybe I'm just a picky eater.

[ananda]

31. Wow. Same here.

I have never liked onions; and I'm now violently
allergic to them for some reason.

Can't stand Brussels sprouts, cabbage, or cauliflower
either.

[pansypoo53219]

36. i am a supertaster, but obviously diff. i love onions & most of the cabbage family,

hate bitter + beer. love vinegar, but heat PAIN!

[hunter]

5. All sorts of additives were used to brew grain alcohols before hops.

Brewing with fruits is a lot more forgiving than brewing with grains.

Without an additive like hops, grain brews can go horribly wrong in many ways, resulting in something undrinkable and thus a waste of grain, or worse, becoming something toxic.

In ancient Egypt beer was part of the workers' rations. If workers got sick or died because the beer was bad, that was trouble. Brewers who screwed up could be executed.

In Germany hops were among the most reliable additives so that became law for two reasons, the first to protect brewing monopolies, but also because some additives other than hops, mostly various herbs, had toxic properties when consumed regularly, including a few that exacerbated the problem of violent drunks.

[cwydro]

6. I know I cannot stand cilantro. Anyone else?

It tastes like soap to me.

[malaise]

7. I adore cilantro - grow my own

We use it in curries and in salads - it has a 'lemonish' taste. What soap is that?

[cwydro]

12. See? Isnt that funny? My friends think Im nuts.

It tastes like dish soap to me.

I wish it didn’t. It’s in everything.

[Denzil_DC]

19. That's supposedly genetic

(HuffPo link, but I believe it's genuine science.)

I have only experienced bitterness of the like between cilantro-lovers (I'm one) and cilantro-haters in a context like Mac vs. PC.

Actually, Mac vs. PC was worse - a couple of guys agreed on a music forum to meet up in a pub car park after dark at a certain date and time and settle their differences over the two platforms mano a mano. We never heard from either of them afterward.

[steve2470]

21. wow that's just...stupid...the incident about mac v. pc....

Live and let live must be a foreign concept to them. Just too stupid.

[cwydro]

22. Lol.

It’s like the tongue rolling thing.

Can you or can’t you?

Couple of other taste tests I remember from middle school, but cilantro was not one of them.

[3catwoman3]

32. Phenolphthalein paper, IIRC.

About 75% of the population can taste its bitter flavor. I suspect there is much more genetic involvement in taste than we currently know. Why do we like or not like something? Hard to explain - we just do or we just don't.

I despise bananas, liver, and acorn squash.

[LeftInTX]

34. Yes, it's genetic

Cilantro has a somewhat citrus taste for everyone else.

[Mrs. Overall]

9. I read somewhere that there is a specific gene that causes the soapy cilantro taste--

You are either genetically programmed to like cilantro or not.

Ginger and goat milk/cheese also fall into this category of genetic likes/dislikes in terms of taste.

[cwydro]

10. I know, I read that too.

It is so odd that some of us cannot stand that taste.

[MrScorpio]

23. I hate cilantro

That soapy taste turns me off.

[malaise]

25. Ginger is a Jamaican staple

you know how long someone has lived here when they stop complaining about ginger in everything and demand ginger in almost everything

[GoCubsGo]

11. I can take it only in small doses.

It tastes like soap to me, as well.

[cwydro]

16. Omg, so glad to hear another sufferer

I know there are others, but it’s tiresome to keep explaining.

[malaise]

26. I have a sister-in-law who hates it

Lots of folks don't like cilantro

[cwydro]

28. It literally tastes like dish soap to me.

I wish it didn’t.

[malaise]

29. Someone suggested that avocado pear tastes like soap

I love avocado as well, but I grew up eating it.

[Codeine]

13. There's a percentage of the population (4-14%)

that shares your trait.

[cwydro]

15. Its horrible to me.

And I hate having to specify that on take-out lol!

[Codeine]

17. It's become unavoidable.

It's in everything. I'm not fond of it but I can deal; eating at Chipotle with the family forced me to come to terms with it.

[cwydro]

18. I have to pick it out if it shows up.

I don’t order out much, but my favorite place is a Vietnamese place close by.

They know me now, but still I end up with that soap on my food1

[LeftInTX]

35. You can avoid it in Mexican food, but Vietnamese food takes it to another level.

[defacto7]

33. I have an extreme aversion.. soap.

Julia Child also tasted soap in cilantro. She refused to cook with it.

[stevenleser]

38. Tastes worse than soap to me. You are not alone

I really wish this wasn’t the case because it seems every restaurant is throwing cilantro into everything these days.

Apparently between 5-10% of us have a genetic desposition to hating the taste of Cilantro.

[kcr]

8. I wonder how diet soda fits in

I can't stand it. I hear diet soda drinkers complain they just can't stand how sweet regular soda is. To them, diet just tastes less sweet. But to me, it's just as sweet with a rotten bitter aftertaste.

[Codeine]

14. Diet soda is appallingly bad.

Easier just to give up soda completely than choke down that vile shit.

[cwydro]

20. Ive never been a soda drinker, so not an issue for me.

If I drink a coke every once in a long while...it has to be the Mexican coke. Real sugar, not high fructose syrup crap.

[kcr]

24. I'm not either, but the diet soda drinkers in my life are hooked like coffee drinkers.

My husband will legit panic at the mere thought of no diet coke in the house. I don't know if that happens with any regular soda drinkers, but I imagine it does. I'm a coffee drinker, myself.

[GoCubsGo]

37. I used to be hooked on Diet Coke, almost as bad as your husband.

It was a hard habit to break, but I realized a lot of it was the carbonation. It got a lot easier get off it when I switched to seltzer.

From what I understand, regular soda can be addictive, too. I know of people who drink several cans per day. Some of it's the sugar, although with cola and Mt. Dew drinkers, they're likely addicted to the caffeine, as well.

[stevenleser]

40. Yep, I was too. Now I dont drink any carbonated beverages.

It was hard breaking the diet soda thing.

[malaise]

27. Diet soda is nasty

So is Splenda

[stevenleser]

39. It takes 3 weeks of only drinking diet soda and not having any refined sugar

After that, your tastebuds become hard wired to liking the diet soda and not liking the non-diet version due to it tasting too sweet.

Those three weeks are bad but then that’s it.