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> Supertasters find beer incredibly bitter, [...] Suffice it to say, hard liquor is a no-no for supertasters. [...] unless they have been conditioned to drink b

> 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.
  - petercooper 9y ago
    I don't like black sugarless coffee either, but with sugar and milk it's quite nice. So do I like coffee or not?
    - SilasX 9y ago
      Depends. Is the black coffee disgusting or tolerable? If the black coffee is disgusting to you by itself, then the sugar is just masking it and it's the sugar that you really like. If the coffee just tastes plain but improves with the sugar, then it would be fair to characterize it as liking coffee. I've talked to people who swear up and down that they like alcohol, but they only like Smirnoff Ice and cosmos and can't tolerate anything else. That's not liking alcohol.
      - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
        If we're being that pedantic, then surely you'd need to ask people what they thought about pure alcohol, which I think is liked by basically no-one. And if you don't like that, then you can't say you like vodka or beer, you just like the extra water etc. In reality, when people say "I like alcohol" they mean they like some subset of alchohol based drinks, and when people say they like coffee they mean some subset of coffee based drinks. But perhaps more importantly, we're talking as if there was some macho points to be gained by liking the taste of a poisonous substance that is often abused by addicts to the detriment of their health and the lives of those they love when presented in some abitrarly acceptable mixtures but not others.
ZeroGravitas 9y ago
The "supertaster" testing kit I found on amazon was actually intended to demonstrate simple genetics in a classroom setting, as apparently the ability to taste the chemicals was considered an ideal demonstration of genetics (though apparently the science is slightly muddier now) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTC_tasting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTC_tasting I could taste the PTC chemical and the list of foods on the Wikipedia that supertasters wouldn't like certainly chimed with me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster#Specific_food_sensitivities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster#Specific_food_sens... I've never thought of it as particularly "super", I've always felt it was just me being picky and that it was my fault for not making more of an effort.
bpicolo 9y ago
Yep. Most beer for me is insanely bitter. Red wine is a strict no, it's grotesque for me. Some red wine out there, that people otherwise tell me is good, tastes literally like a car tire.

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.
- petercooper 9y ago
  I don't like black sugarless coffee either, but with sugar and milk it's quite nice. So do I like coffee or not?
  - SilasX 9y ago
    Depends. Is the black coffee disgusting or tolerable? If the black coffee is disgusting to you by itself, then the sugar is just masking it and it's the sugar that you really like. If the coffee just tastes plain but improves with the sugar, then it would be fair to characterize it as liking coffee. I've talked to people who swear up and down that they like alcohol, but they only like Smirnoff Ice and cosmos and can't tolerate anything else. That's not liking alcohol.
    - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
      If we're being that pedantic, then surely you'd need to ask people what they thought about pure alcohol, which I think is liked by basically no-one. And if you don't like that, then you can't say you like vodka or beer, you just like the extra water etc. In reality, when people say "I like alcohol" they mean they like some subset of alchohol based drinks, and when people say they like coffee they mean some subset of coffee based drinks. But perhaps more importantly, we're talking as if there was some macho points to be gained by liking the taste of a poisonous substance that is often abused by addicts to the detriment of their health and the lives of those they love when presented in some abitrarly acceptable mixtures but not others.

ZeroGravitas 9y ago

The "supertaster" testing kit I found on amazon was actually intended to demonstrate simple genetics in a classroom setting, as apparently the ability to taste the chemicals was considered an ideal demonstration of genetics (though apparently the science is slightly muddier now) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTC_tasting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTC_tasting I could taste the PTC chemical and the list of foods on the Wikipedia that supertasters wouldn't like certainly chimed with me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster#Specific_food_sensitivities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster#Specific_food_sens... I've never thought of it as particularly "super", I've always felt it was just me being picky and that it was my fault for not making more of an effort.

bpicolo 9y ago

Yep. Most beer for me is insanely bitter. Red wine is a strict no, it's grotesque for me. Some red wine out there, that people otherwise tell me is good, tastes literally like a car tire.