Supertasters

[Tab]

Anyone familiar with this?

Supposedly there's a class of people with "super-tasting" palates. I actually think I'm one of them, but it's not the benefit you might think it is. I can't eat anything too sweet, which rules out a lot of desserts (assuming I get to it before my thieving bastard of a dog does). I also can't eat anything too bitter, which rules out things like broccoli and asparagus. I have a number of friends and family that do eat these things, but it doesn't seem to bother them, which implies to me that I'm more sensitive to it than they are. I have to have subtle flavorings - anything too overt is just overpowering for me.

[kestrel91316]

1. It's pretty common. We think my nephew is a supertaster. As a kid he

couldn't STAND most vegetables, especially the strongly flavored ones. He's in his early 20s now and he'll eat them now. Those extra supertaster taste buds mellow out with age, I've heard.

[NashVegas]

2. Interesting

I won't go near most of the bitter veggies; spinach only if it's uncooked. If only I'd known, I'd have had a great excuse at the dinner table.

"But Mom, you know I can't eat cauliflower - I'm a supertaster!"

[troubleinwinter]

3. My mother had what might be called "a sweet tooth"

She was a wonderful cook and baker, but insane about sweets. It was impossible for her to have anything that was sweet enough. She'd pour sugar over an already very sweet desert for herself. I always wondered if there was something wrong with her taste, though it seemed perfect in all other ways but sweets.

I couldn't care less about sweets. If I have chocolates in the house, they may be there a year before I'll bother with one.

I love savories...I am just unable to tolerate 'hot' foods. I adore all sorts of spices, but cannot eat even the ordinary salsa in a Mexican restaurant. It's embarrassing in this culture of the enjoyment of 'hot'. To me, it isn't taste, it is just pain. It's unpleasant... awful.

I love Indian food, with all the flavors and spices, but have to go out of my way to clarify with the server that I can't tolerate 'hot'. I would change it if I could. I don't understand how anybody can enjoy flavors when their tongue is on fire!

My father's sense of taste and smell is impeccable. If we go out and find a wonderful dish, he can tell every ingredient, herb and spice in it, and we can recreate it perfectly. And he likes certain dishes relatively hot.

I don't get it.

[Tab]

7. It almost sounds like she was/is an "undertaster".

My wife is like that. She has to drown shit in ketchup, salt, or whatever. She can eat any vegetable. I can't do it. In fact, the only cooked vegetables I can eat are artichoke and corn. I can eat brocolli or spinanch, but only uncooked.

[Warpy]

4. I'm one but I love broccoli and asparagus

but only properly cooked so there is no bitterness. That raw broccoli on a plate of crudités will gag me every time. Blanch that stuff, m'kay?

I'm with you on the sweet stuff like commercial birthday cake. I have never been tempted to eat a banana split. I ate my strawberry shortcake without the sickly sweet whipped cream in a can before a case of hives ended the strawberries. Give me chocolate, the blacker and less sugary, the better.

I also can't stand salty stuff, probably because I went low salt when my parents did when I was 10 and just never learned to eat stuff like chips.

Commercial ketchup is also off the list because all I can taste is the vinegar. The same goes for a lot of hot sauces.

[Tesha]

5. bitter is beyond me...

I can't eat eggplant, something happens in my mouth - like a pucker but unpleasant, when I try them.

I love sour, and sweet is ok, as long as it's not too much - but offer something bitter and I have to decline or spit it into my napkin.

Spinach is ok if you add nutmeg - I wonder.... does nutmeg do something to bitter? Change it in some way?


and children actually go through a physical/psychological stage of refusing new or strongly flavored foods. With patience most grow out of it.

[Lucinda]

6. Bill is that way. He's ambivalent about sweets and most cruciferous vegetables

taste very bitter and dirty to him. But he loves cabbage. Broccoli is a no-go at all.

[eridani]

8. Know what that sounds like?

A normal characteristic of kids (who typically don't like strongly flavored food) that some people retain into adulthood, by which time most of us have lost a good chunk of our olfactory cells. Lactose tolerance is another example--milk sugar digestion enzymes that in most people are shut down at about 5 years of age stay active well into adulthood. There's a limit though, the gene slowly shuts down anyway. My husband had to give up milk when he was 58 owing to indigestion, so it doesn't last forever.

[susanna]

9. I am one, too. It's strange, huh? Other people rave about certain foods...

...and I'm sitting there scratching my head. I did get over my aversion to bitter and now enjoy broccoli (but not broccoli rabe - way too bitter), asparagus, green pepper, and even beer. I couldn't eat/drink anything with a bitter cast growing up, but I've slowly acclimated myself to them. I don't eat them every day, but I can eat them. Now sweet is a huge turn-off for me. It is utterly overwhelming and I can't stand it. I do drink the occasional soda with salty foods; it's a balance thing (next paragraph explains that better). Either way, with me eschewing the sweets, DH is happy; he gets all the ice cream, cakes and cookies that may wander into the house. Which is not all that many, since I do the shopping. ;-)

As for spices and flavorings, that's a more complex issue. I love herbs and spices and have a huge herb garden. That said they must be balanced to the dish as a whole. I know immediately if there is too much salt, pepper, spice, herb, anything - a split second after I taste. It's like a warning bell goes off in my head. One herb I could almost gag over is cilantro. I've been working on acclimating to it for five years; no luck. It tastes like soap to me. With Asian and Mexican restaurants sprinkling it on or infusing it into every single bit of food, it's driving me nuts. I can take it in very small doses; beyond that, it overtakes all taste.

Something interesting I learned in culinary school, though: we slowly lose our taste capabilities as we get older (which may be why I find bitter veggies a little easier now), even supertasters. So you may be glad you have the extra taste buds someday! :hi: