17 ms·

How to tell if you are a supertaster

71 points by gpresot 9y ago

mixedmath 9y ago
The answer to the title's question is in the last paragraph of the article. > What is an effective technique for examining how many papillae someone has in a given area of the tongue? All of them involve darkening it, and the most enjoyable is to swirl red wine in the mouth and over the tongue. If done correctly, you will be able to see little lumps of tissue on the tongue that are the papillae. Next, take a piece of three-hole notebook paper. The punched holes are about 6 or so millimeters in diameter, and a piece of paper torn off with one of these holes can be placed over the darkened tongue. Now simply count the number of papillae you see in the punched hole. If you have fewer than 4 papillae, you are more than likely a nontaster, whereas from 4 to 8 papillae would suggest that you are a taster. Anything over 8 would indicate that you are a supertaster or a super-supertaster.
- c128 9y ago
  The feeling is apparent with a bottle of El Dorado sipping run from Guyana.
sambeau 9y ago
A simple way I was taught by a geneticist was to drink a Diet Coke. If it is sweet you are not a super-taster; if it is bitter you are. For me all diet drinks taste very bitter like quinine or biting into a green potato.
- randallsquared 9y ago
  Surely they taste bitter for everyone at first? You may eventually come to prefer that and find "regular" soda sickly sweet, as I do.
  - djur 9y ago
    Diet cola tasted sweet to me the few times I had it (I don't drink pop generally). Couldn't imagine finding it bitter.
- Nursie 9y ago
  This seems an odd test - when I first had diet coke it tasted weird, but it became an acquired taste and now normal coke tastes weird.
- sergiosgc 9y ago
  It's a strange test. I can taste the bitter and the sweet in aspartame. Even so, I'd qualify Diet Coke as sweet, even though both tastes are there. Worse, the formula has changed over the years. Diet Coke used to be closer to Coke Zero but, after Coke Zero was launched, drifted to a more bitter taste.
ggambetta 9y ago
> Supertasters find beer incredibly bitter, [...] Suffice it to say, hard liquor is a no-no for supertasters. [...] unless they have been conditioned to drink beer, they more than likely will first and foremost consider both as just really bitter. Huh. This might explain my extreme dislike for beer, and why I hate olives? For some time I've believed it may be a genetic mutation similar to why some people say cilantro tastes like soap.
- amelius 9y ago
  I wonder if this means that super-tasters would be bad chef-cooks, when cooking for not-super-tasters. Everything they make would be lacking in bitter tastes. Then I wonder if the best chef-cook would be the one with the same taste. I.e. if I am a non-taster, then I need a non-taster chef-cook, etc. Another thing I'm curious about is if this property is really that black-and-white (or ternary) as the article suggests. Tasting bitter requires a certain gene, but I guess there are other genes for other tastes, and also for smells, etc.
  - superb_herb 9y ago
    I suspect I am a super taster but I have grown to love bitter tastes -- I even crave them. Bitter greens, bitter beers... can't get enough!
- petercooper 9y ago
  Confirmed 'supertaster' here and while beer and most spirits are a no-no, throwing them into Red Bull or other ultra sweet mixers makes them quite enjoyable ;-) I also hated olives but have conditioned myself to tolerate them by constant exposure.
  - SilasX 9y ago
    Hating alcohol except when it has a ton of sweetness added to it, is still hating alcohol. The saying “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” is not making a point that medicine tastes good.
spodek 9y ago
> Rob DeSalle is curator of entomology in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City Nothing against the author, but when I see "Sackler," I think of that family's contribution to the opioid epidemic, which I learned from through HN. The Family That Built an Empire of Pain | The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-tha... Who is to blame for the opioid epidemic? - Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-to-blame-for-the-opioid-epidemic/2017/03/29/834c0024-14be-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-to-blame-for-... Who Profits from the Opioid Crisis? Meet the Secretive ...: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/19/who_profits_from_the_opioid_crisis https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/19/who_profits_from_the...
- throwaway67777 9y ago
  Careful with that pattern recognition there. Might just get yourself in trouble: http://takimag.com/article/curb_your_self_awareness_steve_sailer/print http://takimag.com/article/curb_your_self_awareness_steve_sa...
k__ 9y ago
I took a DNA test that told me I could taste bitter and only 40% of the population could taste it. I never liked the bitter beers. But I'm European and male, so I'm probably no supertaster
- bicubic 9y ago
  Random English tip! 'I made a dna test' means that you have created a dna test. 'I took a dna test' means you have performed a dna test on yourself. 'made' and 'performed' are the same word in a few European languages.
  - k__ 9y ago
    Thank you :) Yes, I'm German, we often simplify this: Ich machte einen DNS Test. I made a DNA test. Correct would be the passive form: Ich habe eine DNS Test machen lassen. Which corresponds more to the English "took" I guess :)
- technofiend 9y ago
  I hate bitter flavors and most beers and diet drinks taste awful to me but I'm no supertaster...my wife who has never been tested for it on the other hand happily eats bitter things and loves beer but can eat a dish and decompose it into constituent ingredients. She definitely has a sharper palate but I'm not sure she'd qualify either. Maybe it's something that's measured on a spectrum?
Geekette 9y ago
This is an article about beer with a small addendum about taste. The author's analogy is based on a false premise of bitterness being universally repulsive as a flavour. Within the group of those with heightened tastebuds that can more accurately taste it, disdain for bitter is not uniform. I.e. I've a much keener than average sense of taste and smell. I hate beer because I dislike the basic essence, regardless of ingredient/flavour variation, which is due to my dislike of bitters as a flavour group. However, I know others who may be considered "supertasters" that like bitter flavours and go out of their way to consume certain foods of peculiar/distinct bitterness. Likewise, some "supertasters" prefer sourness as their top choices, etc. Edit: Similarly, "normal tasters" can like or dislike bitter (in varying combinations and intensities) but dislike doesn't automatically equate to stronger sense of taste/smell.
- criley2 9y ago
  Bitterness is a naturally evolved reaction to unpalatable and dangerous foods. It's not a false premise, it's merely the biological premise behind the development of bitter receptors in the first place. We developed bitter receptors to help us identify dangerous plantlife. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_taste_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_taste_evolution (Or for the biologists out there, random development of bitter reception was naturally selected for as a trait which improve fitness). However some two million to half a million years ago, we stopped depending on bitter reception for survival as much because of meat eating and cooking. So it's not expressed as strongly in people anymore. So sure, some people enjoy bitter. But people do bad things. Alcohol is a poison through and through and we as a species love it. Doesn't mean it's not a poison! i.e. just because someone enjoys bitter doesn't invalidate the fact that bitter is unpleasant and our natural instinctual reaction to it is avoidance.
  - Nursie 9y ago
    If someone enjoys bitter then to them it's not unpleasant, surely, by definition?
  - colechristensen 9y ago
    The error here is attributing a linear cause and effect or purpose to evolution. There might be evolutionary pressure towards developing detection of certain things as bitter and an aversion to the flavor, but it's just one pressure among many. The fact that so many people enjoy bitter things so much means that clearly the traits you talk about aren't universal or complete.
vixen99 9y ago
Unless you like and have access to certain beers, the article won't tell you any such thing. Perhaps the book from which the piece is excerpted does.
- mythrwy 9y ago
  Exactly. Title should be changed to "How to get a nice buzz while nominally finding out if you are a supertaster".
- DigitalJack 9y ago
  It tells you how to measure the papillae on your tongue to determine if you are a super-taster.
petercooper 9y ago
I did the technical way. I downloaded my genome from 23andme and looked for the (I don't know the terminology) 'things' with the letters that indicate I have the genes. Coupled with the physical evidence (I find beer and green vegetables sour to the point of being vile), turns out I'm in the club..
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dogruck 9y ago
Is this both sexist and racist? > Supertasters are mostly women, and people of European ancestry are usually not supertasters. Edit: The quoted statement does not offend me personally. I’m wondering: 1. When is it not sexist or racist (e.g. pointing out statistics about height, hair color, or skin tone)? 2. When is it definitely (I’m told) sexist or racist (e.g. James Damore asking about capability to write software)? 3. When is it in the middle (e.g. being a “super taster”)?
- 1_2__4 9y ago
  Are you asking if statistics are racist or sexist?
  - dogruck 9y ago
    Are you implying that some sexes or races have superior (aka super) capabilities that others don’t have?
    - kbart 9y ago
      Statistical fact: there's higher rate of naturally blonde people in Scandinavia than Africa. Do you find it racist/offensive too?
      - dogruck 9y ago
        No, it doesn’t offend me. I simply asked a couple questions (which are being downvoted). Maybe James Damore shouldn’t have been fired by Google?
        Jill_the_Pill 9y ago
        You are (willfully) conflating biological characteristics with social ones. Statistically, more women are physically abused than men. Do we shrug and say, oh well, tain't nothin' you can do about it -- it's biology, like being blonde or a super-taster? Nevermind. Don't answer that. :(
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
rvooda 9y ago
I read the title at first as "How to tell if you are superstar"
- eggoa 9y ago
  Me too. It would be a completely believable title for an article upvoted on Hacker News.
  - jeffshek 9y ago
    Same. I was then expecting the first comment to be "If you have to ask ..."
- JeffDClark 9y ago
  As did I, then I saw the sub-headline of "For one thing, you won’t like IPAs." and I got sad for myself.
zwieback 9y ago
I don't think I'm a supertaster (for bitter) but it has to be said that a very large percentage of IPAs is just really bad, among inexperienced microbrewers there seems to be a race to max IBUs.
- bitexploder 9y ago
  That is a thing a lot of new brewers don't really understand about how to get actual hop flavor into your beer. In the initial boiling process when hops are added they almost solely contribute IBUs with very little flavor, because the boiling process destroys the delicate flavor compounds. It is only hops added as the wort cools down, or during the dry hopping process, that contribute to the moral floral and piney flavors some IPAs have. This is why beers such as Dogfish ehad 60 and 90 minute IPAs are so popular, because they used a continuous hopping rate which meant many of the hop flavors end up in the beer and not just making it bitter. Course experienced brewers know about hopping schedules and dry hopping, but...
- chadgeidel 9y ago
  Denverite here (lots of microbreweries in the area). This is obviously anecdote, but it seems that the desire to max out the IBUs in Pale Ales and India Pale Ales has run its course. I never was a big IPA fan and couldn't even order a standard Pale Ale for years. I feel I can now safely order a Pale Ale in most places that isn't super bitter.
  - zwieback 9y ago
    You may be right. Even in hops-obsessed Oregon it's getting easier to get drinkable microbrews again. There are brewers stepping up to the challenge of making interesting lagers now.
hellogoodbyeeee 9y ago
My taste preferences have gone through a pretty radical change over the last three years or so. I never liked spicy foods before, but I started to use Sriracha which led me to search out other spicy foods. Now I feel very unmotivated to go to any restaurant that doesn't offer a spicy food dish. I know this is off topic, but it is be interested in hearing if others have had similar experiences
Kiro 9y ago
> But they more than likely will not be able to tell the difference between a Columbia hopped beer and a Cascade hopped beer. If that's the bar for a nontaster then I'm a super-nontaster. I did a beer blind test once and even though I like beer I wrongly identified IPAs as lager etc. I don't think I got a single one correct.
phibz 9y ago
My wife gave me the paper strip super taster test. She is a vile, vile woman. We also tried the counting method later. I recommend the strips so long as the subject doesn't know the expected reaction. It's easier to do. Being a supertaster is not a good thing necessarily. Earlier in life I avoided a lot of foods. It was only after I forced myself to put up with the bitterness and accept it'd always be there that I was able to branch out. One curious thing I've found is that I have a very strong like of certain smells. Some of them are smells others consider off putting or uncomfortable. Things like cardboard, paper, certain glues, heavy mechanical grease, certain rubber smells, skunk spray (yes the animal), the belts in bowling ball return chutes, etc all smell intoxicating. The only other person I found with a similar interest is also a super taster. I wonder if there is a correlation.

71 points by gpresot 9y ago

The answer to the title's question is in the last paragraph of the article. > What is an effective technique for examining how many papillae someone has in a given area of the tongue? All of them involve darkening it, and the most enjoyable is to swirl red wine in the mouth and over the tongue. If done correctly, you will be able to see little lumps of tissue on the tongue that are the papillae. Next, take a piece of three-hole notebook paper. The punched holes are about 6 or so millimeters in diameter, and a piece of paper torn off with one of these holes can be placed over the darkened tongue. Now simply count the number of papillae you see in the punched hole. If you have fewer than 4 papillae, you are more than likely a nontaster, whereas from 4 to 8 papillae would suggest that you are a taster. Anything over 8 would indicate that you are a supertaster or a super-supertaster.

c128 9y ago
The feeling is apparent with a bottle of El Dorado sipping run from Guyana.

sambeau 9y ago

A simple way I was taught by a geneticist was to drink a Diet Coke. If it is sweet you are not a super-taster; if it is bitter you are. For me all diet drinks taste very bitter like quinine or biting into a green potato.

randallsquared 9y ago
Surely they taste bitter for everyone at first? You may eventually come to prefer that and find "regular" soda sickly sweet, as I do.
- djur 9y ago
  Diet cola tasted sweet to me the few times I had it (I don't drink pop generally). Couldn't imagine finding it bitter.
Nursie 9y ago
This seems an odd test - when I first had diet coke it tasted weird, but it became an acquired taste and now normal coke tastes weird.
sergiosgc 9y ago
It's a strange test. I can taste the bitter and the sweet in aspartame. Even so, I'd qualify Diet Coke as sweet, even though both tastes are there. Worse, the formula has changed over the years. Diet Coke used to be closer to Coke Zero but, after Coke Zero was launched, drifted to a more bitter taste.

ggambetta 9y ago

> Supertasters find beer incredibly bitter, [...] Suffice it to say, hard liquor is a no-no for supertasters. [...] unless they have been conditioned to drink beer, they more than likely will first and foremost consider both as just really bitter. Huh. This might explain my extreme dislike for beer, and why I hate olives? For some time I've believed it may be a genetic mutation similar to why some people say cilantro tastes like soap.

amelius 9y ago
I wonder if this means that super-tasters would be bad chef-cooks, when cooking for not-super-tasters. Everything they make would be lacking in bitter tastes. Then I wonder if the best chef-cook would be the one with the same taste. I.e. if I am a non-taster, then I need a non-taster chef-cook, etc. Another thing I'm curious about is if this property is really that black-and-white (or ternary) as the article suggests. Tasting bitter requires a certain gene, but I guess there are other genes for other tastes, and also for smells, etc.
- superb_herb 9y ago
  I suspect I am a super taster but I have grown to love bitter tastes -- I even crave them. Bitter greens, bitter beers... can't get enough!
petercooper 9y ago
Confirmed 'supertaster' here and while beer and most spirits are a no-no, throwing them into Red Bull or other ultra sweet mixers makes them quite enjoyable ;-) I also hated olives but have conditioned myself to tolerate them by constant exposure.
- SilasX 9y ago
  Hating alcohol except when it has a ton of sweetness added to it, is still hating alcohol. The saying “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” is not making a point that medicine tastes good.

spodek 9y ago

> Rob DeSalle is curator of entomology in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City Nothing against the author, but when I see "Sackler," I think of that family's contribution to the opioid epidemic, which I learned from through HN. The Family That Built an Empire of Pain | The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-tha... Who is to blame for the opioid epidemic? - Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-to-blame-for-the-opioid-epidemic/2017/03/29/834c0024-14be-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-to-blame-for-... Who Profits from the Opioid Crisis? Meet the Secretive ...: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/19/who_profits_from_the_opioid_crisis https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/19/who_profits_from_the...

throwaway67777 9y ago
Careful with that pattern recognition there. Might just get yourself in trouble: http://takimag.com/article/curb_your_self_awareness_steve_sailer/print http://takimag.com/article/curb_your_self_awareness_steve_sa...

k__ 9y ago

I took a DNA test that told me I could taste bitter and only 40% of the population could taste it. I never liked the bitter beers. But I'm European and male, so I'm probably no supertaster

bicubic 9y ago
Random English tip! 'I made a dna test' means that you have created a dna test. 'I took a dna test' means you have performed a dna test on yourself. 'made' and 'performed' are the same word in a few European languages.
- k__ 9y ago
  Thank you :) Yes, I'm German, we often simplify this: Ich machte einen DNS Test. I made a DNA test. Correct would be the passive form: Ich habe eine DNS Test machen lassen. Which corresponds more to the English "took" I guess :)
technofiend 9y ago
I hate bitter flavors and most beers and diet drinks taste awful to me but I'm no supertaster...my wife who has never been tested for it on the other hand happily eats bitter things and loves beer but can eat a dish and decompose it into constituent ingredients. She definitely has a sharper palate but I'm not sure she'd qualify either. Maybe it's something that's measured on a spectrum?

Geekette 9y ago

This is an article about beer with a small addendum about taste. The author's analogy is based on a false premise of bitterness being universally repulsive as a flavour. Within the group of those with heightened tastebuds that can more accurately taste it, disdain for bitter is not uniform. I.e. I've a much keener than average sense of taste and smell. I hate beer because I dislike the basic essence, regardless of ingredient/flavour variation, which is due to my dislike of bitters as a flavour group. However, I know others who may be considered "supertasters" that like bitter flavours and go out of their way to consume certain foods of peculiar/distinct bitterness. Likewise, some "supertasters" prefer sourness as their top choices, etc. Edit: Similarly, "normal tasters" can like or dislike bitter (in varying combinations and intensities) but dislike doesn't automatically equate to stronger sense of taste/smell.

criley2 9y ago
Bitterness is a naturally evolved reaction to unpalatable and dangerous foods. It's not a false premise, it's merely the biological premise behind the development of bitter receptors in the first place. We developed bitter receptors to help us identify dangerous plantlife. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_taste_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_taste_evolution (Or for the biologists out there, random development of bitter reception was naturally selected for as a trait which improve fitness). However some two million to half a million years ago, we stopped depending on bitter reception for survival as much because of meat eating and cooking. So it's not expressed as strongly in people anymore. So sure, some people enjoy bitter. But people do bad things. Alcohol is a poison through and through and we as a species love it. Doesn't mean it's not a poison! i.e. just because someone enjoys bitter doesn't invalidate the fact that bitter is unpleasant and our natural instinctual reaction to it is avoidance.
- Nursie 9y ago
  If someone enjoys bitter then to them it's not unpleasant, surely, by definition?
- colechristensen 9y ago
  The error here is attributing a linear cause and effect or purpose to evolution. There might be evolutionary pressure towards developing detection of certain things as bitter and an aversion to the flavor, but it's just one pressure among many. The fact that so many people enjoy bitter things so much means that clearly the traits you talk about aren't universal or complete.

vixen99 9y ago

Unless you like and have access to certain beers, the article won't tell you any such thing. Perhaps the book from which the piece is excerpted does.

mythrwy 9y ago
Exactly. Title should be changed to "How to get a nice buzz while nominally finding out if you are a supertaster".
DigitalJack 9y ago
It tells you how to measure the papillae on your tongue to determine if you are a super-taster.

petercooper 9y ago

I did the technical way. I downloaded my genome from 23andme and looked for the (I don't know the terminology) 'things' with the letters that indicate I have the genes. Coupled with the physical evidence (I find beer and green vegetables sour to the point of being vile), turns out I'm in the club..

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dogruck 9y ago

Is this both sexist and racist? > Supertasters are mostly women, and people of European ancestry are usually not supertasters. Edit: The quoted statement does not offend me personally. I’m wondering: 1. When is it not sexist or racist (e.g. pointing out statistics about height, hair color, or skin tone)? 2. When is it definitely (I’m told) sexist or racist (e.g. James Damore asking about capability to write software)? 3. When is it in the middle (e.g. being a “super taster”)?

1_2__4 9y ago
Are you asking if statistics are racist or sexist?
- dogruck 9y ago
  Are you implying that some sexes or races have superior (aka super) capabilities that others don’t have?
  - kbart 9y ago
    Statistical fact: there's higher rate of naturally blonde people in Scandinavia than Africa. Do you find it racist/offensive too?
    - dogruck 9y ago
      No, it doesn’t offend me. I simply asked a couple questions (which are being downvoted). Maybe James Damore shouldn’t have been fired by Google?
      - Jill_the_Pill 9y ago
        You are (willfully) conflating biological characteristics with social ones. Statistically, more women are physically abused than men. Do we shrug and say, oh well, tain't nothin' you can do about it -- it's biology, like being blonde or a super-taster? Nevermind. Don't answer that. :(

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

rvooda 9y ago

I read the title at first as "How to tell if you are superstar"

eggoa 9y ago
Me too. It would be a completely believable title for an article upvoted on Hacker News.
- jeffshek 9y ago
  Same. I was then expecting the first comment to be "If you have to ask ..."
JeffDClark 9y ago
As did I, then I saw the sub-headline of "For one thing, you won’t like IPAs." and I got sad for myself.

zwieback 9y ago

I don't think I'm a supertaster (for bitter) but it has to be said that a very large percentage of IPAs is just really bad, among inexperienced microbrewers there seems to be a race to max IBUs.

bitexploder 9y ago
That is a thing a lot of new brewers don't really understand about how to get actual hop flavor into your beer. In the initial boiling process when hops are added they almost solely contribute IBUs with very little flavor, because the boiling process destroys the delicate flavor compounds. It is only hops added as the wort cools down, or during the dry hopping process, that contribute to the moral floral and piney flavors some IPAs have. This is why beers such as Dogfish ehad 60 and 90 minute IPAs are so popular, because they used a continuous hopping rate which meant many of the hop flavors end up in the beer and not just making it bitter. Course experienced brewers know about hopping schedules and dry hopping, but...
chadgeidel 9y ago
Denverite here (lots of microbreweries in the area). This is obviously anecdote, but it seems that the desire to max out the IBUs in Pale Ales and India Pale Ales has run its course. I never was a big IPA fan and couldn't even order a standard Pale Ale for years. I feel I can now safely order a Pale Ale in most places that isn't super bitter.
- zwieback 9y ago
  You may be right. Even in hops-obsessed Oregon it's getting easier to get drinkable microbrews again. There are brewers stepping up to the challenge of making interesting lagers now.

hellogoodbyeeee 9y ago

My taste preferences have gone through a pretty radical change over the last three years or so. I never liked spicy foods before, but I started to use Sriracha which led me to search out other spicy foods. Now I feel very unmotivated to go to any restaurant that doesn't offer a spicy food dish. I know this is off topic, but it is be interested in hearing if others have had similar experiences

Kiro 9y ago

> But they more than likely will not be able to tell the difference between a Columbia hopped beer and a Cascade hopped beer. If that's the bar for a nontaster then I'm a super-nontaster. I did a beer blind test once and even though I like beer I wrongly identified IPAs as lager etc. I don't think I got a single one correct.

phibz 9y ago

My wife gave me the paper strip super taster test. She is a vile, vile woman. We also tried the counting method later. I recommend the strips so long as the subject doesn't know the expected reaction. It's easier to do. Being a supertaster is not a good thing necessarily. Earlier in life I avoided a lot of foods. It was only after I forced myself to put up with the bitterness and accept it'd always be there that I was able to branch out. One curious thing I've found is that I have a very strong like of certain smells. Some of them are smells others consider off putting or uncomfortable. Things like cardboard, paper, certain glues, heavy mechanical grease, certain rubber smells, skunk spray (yes the animal), the belts in bowling ball return chutes, etc all smell intoxicating. The only other person I found with a similar interest is also a super taster. I wonder if there is a correlation.