Supertasters

I recently came across the page on supertasters on Wikipedia while browsing…and I think I might be one.

A supertaster, per the article, is “a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average.” This refers to both pleasant and unpleasant tastes, and it was while reading the list of foods that supertasters generally dislike that I went from reading with mild interest to sitting up and taking notice. The evidence is, admittedly, circumstantial, but let's go down the list:

• “Certain alcoholic beverages (gins, tequilas, and hoppy beers)”
• Well, I've never actually had one to confirm, because I dislike the smell of most alcoholic beverages—especially beer.
• “Brassica oleracea cultivars (become very sulfurous, especially if overcooked): Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale”
• I'm definitely not fond of either Brussels sprouts or kale. Cabbage I like raw, in a salad, but reading this reminded me that I don't like sauerkraut despite generally loving sour tastes. So, kind of?
• “Coffee”
• Can't stand it. When I first started my PhD, back when we had a coffee machine in the lunch room, I decided to finally give it a go and see if I could figure out what people saw in it. I stuck it out for a few months, before finally giving up because I just could not enjoy the vile taste (and that's despite dousing it with sugar).
• “Grapefruit juice”
• This one I can't really remember trying, but going off my memory of the scent of grapefruit I don't think I'd like it.
• “Cilantro or Coriander”
• No. I have the gene OR6A2 which makes cilantro taste incredibly repulsive. Like, if you don't have the gene, I'm not sure it's possible for me to convey just how awful it tastes. To me it tastes like the smell stinkbugs make. Take a bite out of a cake of soap if you want an inkling of what it's like.
• “Green tea”
• I don't really drink green tea, I realized. I drink black tea sometimes, but even then I don't really drink it for the taste, as I only have it with enough sugar to make it sweet. I guess I dislike unsweetened tea in general.
• “Watercress, mustard greens, horseradish, dandelion greens, rutabaga and turnip”
• I…am trying to think of the last time I had any of these, if ever. None of them are things I'm particularly motivated to seek out, at least, so it's possible I tried them once and didn't like them.
• “Soy products”
• Not entirely sure what this one means. I do like soy sauce, and I'll eat soybeans…though they can definitely be a bit bitter sometimes, now that I think about it.
• “Carbonated water”
• Never could stand the stuff. I like it if it's sweetened as soda pop, but not by itself—it just burns my tongue.
• “Mushrooms”
• I definitely dislike mushrooms, though part of that is their texture. Not sure how much of it is their taste—I haven't had one in long enough to have forgotten what they taste like.
• “Anise and licorice”
• Don't like either.
• “Lower-sodium foods”
• Not really sure what this is referring to. The article does say “Supertasters consume more salt in comparison to those with average taste.” It's true I do love my salt-and-vinegar potato chips (that perfect combination of salty and sour, perhaps why I love dill pickles as well), but I don't think I particularly dislike lower-sodium foods.
• “Hot-spicy foods”
• Yup, definitely do not like spicy foods. I can stand the occasional “mild” salsa or taco mix, but that's about it.
• “Other foods may also show altered patterns of preference and consumption, but only indirect evidence exists:
• Tonic water – quinine is more bitter to supertasters”
• No idea, don't think I've ever had tasted quinine (though if it's bitter, I probably wouldn't like it).
• “Olives – for a given concentration, salt is more intense in supertasters”
• For whatever reason, I've always been ashamed of my dislike of olives (unlike any of my other dislikes). I'll order them on pizza, or Subway sandwiches from time to time, and over the past year I've actually been buying them from the grocery store to try to build up a tolerance of them, but no. They remain disagreeable.

So that's at least eight things on that list I definitively dislike, and several more that I'm pretty sure I'd dislike based on my nose (which by the way, Mom and Dad, was basically 100% accurate when, as a kid, I told you I wasn't going to like something before actually tasting it)¹. Keeping in mind that is only general trends and not a strict diagnosis (which requires exposure to very specific compounds to see what they taste like, apparently), it's still pretty striking just how well this lines up with my overall taste preferences.

I suppose the flip side to all this is that if I am a supertaster, at least I'm experiencing the good tastes more intensely too? I don't have any way of telling that, of course, though I have learned to tone down my natural reactions to biting into a perfect hamburger or other culinary masterpiece to stop people teasing me about it. Not that it really matters either way, I just thought this was an interesting phenomenon to learn about. A hui hou!

¹I can think of a few foods (sauerkraut, coffee) where I like the smell but dislike the taste, but no foods where I dislike the smell and like the taste.