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I loved eating that stuff as a kid growing up in Germany. Still do, but can't easily find it in Seattle. It's a very acquired flavor... just like I absolutely

by verst 6y ago

I loved eating that stuff as a kid growing up in Germany. Still do, but can't easily find it in Seattle. It's a very acquired flavor... just like I absolutely cannot get used to the taste of IPAs.

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> It's a very acquired flavor... I don't think that it is actually "acquired". You liked it as a child, and still do. I find it to be vile and inedible, and always have. This preference seems to innate and fixed.
- moron4hire 6y ago
  I don't care for it, but I don't hate it. It's kind of "meh". Don't see what the fuss is, either way.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    > I don't care for it, but I don't hate it. It's kind of "meh". Therefor, if there is a gene that makes one sensitive to the extreme pungency of liquorice in bad way, then you don't have it. You just fall somewhere on the range of preferences that you might find for any taste.
- gowld 6y ago
  Have you tried it more than 50 times?
  - kbutler 6y ago
    If you detested it the first 49 times, why keep eating it?
    - ImprovedSilence 6y ago
      familiarity breeds comfort. A common hack to get your kids to eat anything, is to force them to try it at least 10 different times. They always keep spitting it out or crying they don't like it. Eventually one time you feed it to them and they get used to it and like it, as if they never threw a fit with it before. Not everybody's parents did this. That's why there's grown adults that eat nothing but pizza or steak and potatoes... P.S. that being said, I still don't like broccoli.... Might be one of the only foods I've never liked in any shape or form... P.P.S. I've had that salty black licorice before when I visited Sweden. I enjoyed it in very small doses.
      - ctidd 6y ago
        Forcing your children to eat things they aren't comfortable with is not a hack. Please do not do this. There is a significant difference between providing a positive environment for your child to encounter new foods and forcing them, physically or otherwise, to eat them.
        kbenson 6y ago
        There's something to be said for this, but I also don't think the GP literally meant forcing them. Forcing children to eat something can cause aversion and eating problems. That said, I am a fan of strongly incentivizing thought promising a later treat for the first few times there's something new to try that I want them to give a fair shake to.
        SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
        > but I also don't think the GP literally meant forcing them We only have the GP's words: and at face value, as they should be taken, they do seem to literally mean that.
        kbenson 6y ago
        To a degree. Hyperbole and idioms are a normal part of communication, as is learning to decipher meaning from them. If someone said something along the lines of "I would kill my son if they did that", would you take that literally, or as a hyperbolic idiom meaning they would be mad at them and punish them? I think the actual meaning of the statement in question is ambiguous given the above, and providing for the option that you misinterpreted someone's meaning when condemning their speech likely does a lot to keep the discussion civil and useful.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    >Have you tried it more than 50 times Over the years, I must have. It's invariant. This is _not_ an "acquired taste" thing, it is simply unpalatable to some, and you can kindly stop pushing it.
- verst 6y ago
  I didn't like beer, wine, whiskey or coffee at 16 or 18 and now do. I don't know when I started liking black licorice but surely I didn't eat that as a toddler. I remember my parents giving it to me when I couldn't sleep pretending it was a sleep medication. It worked haha
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    Are you saying that you went from the "hate liquorice" to the "like liquorice" camp? At what age? I literally don't know of anyone who has "acquired" the taste for liquorice via exposure. It's really nothing like "aging into" the preference for coffee, beer, whiskey or wine. It's more like the preference for coriander / cilantro, which is genetic. I appreciate that your experience of liquorice is different to mine, but I ask you to stop explaining my experience of liquorice to me.
    - verst 6y ago
      I don't think anyone is explaining your experience. You always hated it and still do. No big deal. However you seem to reject the idea people can go from disliking it to liking it, which isn't the case. Nobody claimed you can force yourself to enjoy it :)
      - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
        > you seem to reject the idea people can go from disliking it to liking it, which isn't the case I'm saying that I have never seen this happen when the person has the "liquorice averse" reaction, which is not simple a regular food preference or toddler with unfamiliar food thing. And so I am very sceptical. You say it "isn't the case" but ... nothing more. Ok, that does not convince me.
dylan604 6y ago
Sort of like Jaegermeister. I can't believe people drink that by choice.
- pengaru 6y ago
  There are a lot of "digestif" [0] alcoholic drinks experientially very similar to Jaegermeister, it's kind of a thing to be medicinal. The American pracice of drinking Jaegermeister to excess I get the impression is done because it tastes so bad, like it's fun because it's so gross and we're sharing this exceptional though still mild form of suffering while getting wasted. Misery loves company as they say. Social drinking to excess in general has always struck me as a form of shared suffering, Jaeger is just on the extreme end of emphasizing it. Very few alcoholic beverages actually taste genuinely good IMHO, unless it's a cocktail full of flavored syrup like a liquid Jolly Rancher. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap%C3%A9ritif_and_digestif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap%C3%A9ritif_and_digestif
  - e_y_ 6y ago
    It's good for a single round of shots, just to add some variety and the shared experience thing. It's definitely not something you'd want to drink all night. I don't like the taste of alcohol, but clearly some people do, so I'm thinking it's either an acquired taste (or psychological dependency) or some people just have different taste buds or something. I think it's recently become a bit more acceptable to admit that you only drink to be social, though.
- barsonme 6y ago
  It’s very tasty if you like the taste of licorice and cough syrup. :)
- verst 6y ago
  Americans think that Germans drink a lot of Jaegermeister or love that stuff. I only ever saw old people drinking that in Germany, or people on a dare... I am pretty sure Jaegermeister is more popular in the US than Germany
pwinnski 6y ago
Across the bay in Poulsbo, there's a little store with quite a few varieties of licorice, including some very salty stuff.
zwieback 6y ago
I grew up in Germany as well (Stuttgart) and love licorice, don't eat too much here but there are quite a few stores that carry it. Most NW IPAs are nasty, enough said. Luckily the microbrewers are coming off their hops high and returning to drinkable beers again. Lots of great lagers in Oregon right now.
- kbenson 6y ago
  My understanding is that IPA are extremely forgiving compared to lagers, because the hops. If so, that explains to some degree why microbreweries like to make them, they're probably considerably easier to make in a consistent quality than a lager. It makes good sense to build a name and reputation on easier to produce items and use that to perfect more complex and demanding things.
- verst 6y ago
  Gotta love all the "German style" beers that still taste like watery IPAs and nothing like the German beer they pretend to imitate. I hear the kind of hops and water they use may be partially to blame
- sudosteph 6y ago
  Moved from Seattle to Asheville, and having good non-IPA options has been killer. I've talked to few folks here who say that sours are the new hotness. Not sure if thats a regional thing or a broader trend. Either way, suits my taste much better.
  - verst 6y ago
    I love sours :) I'm jealous!
shard 6y ago
I've come across a few foods that appear to be heavily acquired tastes, and if you did not get used to it as a kid, it is very difficult to change your tastes. Licorice is definitely one for me, it makes me feel like I am eating tree sap. Others include perilla leaves (called sesame leaves in Korean cuisine) and cilantro (people who are not used to it says it tastes like soap).
- pivo 6y ago
  > cilantro (people who are not used to it says it tastes like soap) The soap taste of cilantro is attributed to genetics: https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-lik...
  - eridan2 6y ago
    also the bitter brussel sprout: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/nov/01/brussel-sprout-gene https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/nov/01/brussel...
- colordrops 6y ago
  Speaking of Koreans, when I lived in Beijing, we used to call cilantro "Korean Kryptonite". It's in many Chinese dishes but the many Koreans that lived in Beijing hated it with a passion.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y ago
  There are some great YouTube videos of people around the world trying foods from different countries for the first time. Watching people gag on American staples like root beer is a lot of fun.
- pengaru 6y ago
  Something I've discovered is one way to acquire a taste for things you want to like eating is to narrow your diet substantially to where that thing forms a substantial component of your sustenance. Obviously this isn't a great idea if that thing is a junk food snack or the like, but if it's a nutritious healthy kind of thing you just don't enjoy yet, in my experience this method acquires an appreciation and even craving for it within a few months. It's as if the body learns this is the stuff of survival that's in season now.
joezydeco 6y ago
What do you think of Waldmeister? I love that flavor, everyone around me doesn’t agree.
- verst 6y ago
  Haha Waldmeister - I love that flavor though the syrup is disgustingly sweet. I have no idea what flavor it is even pretending to be...
icedistilled 6y ago
At least in california, cost plus world market sells some, or did last I was in there. I actually enjoy the stuff, I just can't finish a whole piece.

by verst 6y ago

I loved eating that stuff as a kid growing up in Germany. Still do, but can't easily find it in Seattle. It's a very acquired flavor... just like I absolutely cannot get used to the taste of IPAs.

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago

> It's a very acquired flavor... I don't think that it is actually "acquired". You liked it as a child, and still do. I find it to be vile and inedible, and always have. This preference seems to innate and fixed.

moron4hire 6y ago
I don't care for it, but I don't hate it. It's kind of "meh". Don't see what the fuss is, either way.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  > I don't care for it, but I don't hate it. It's kind of "meh". Therefor, if there is a gene that makes one sensitive to the extreme pungency of liquorice in bad way, then you don't have it. You just fall somewhere on the range of preferences that you might find for any taste.
gowld 6y ago
Have you tried it more than 50 times?
- kbutler 6y ago
  If you detested it the first 49 times, why keep eating it?
  - ImprovedSilence 6y ago
    familiarity breeds comfort. A common hack to get your kids to eat anything, is to force them to try it at least 10 different times. They always keep spitting it out or crying they don't like it. Eventually one time you feed it to them and they get used to it and like it, as if they never threw a fit with it before. Not everybody's parents did this. That's why there's grown adults that eat nothing but pizza or steak and potatoes... P.S. that being said, I still don't like broccoli.... Might be one of the only foods I've never liked in any shape or form... P.P.S. I've had that salty black licorice before when I visited Sweden. I enjoyed it in very small doses.
    - ctidd 6y ago
      Forcing your children to eat things they aren't comfortable with is not a hack. Please do not do this. There is a significant difference between providing a positive environment for your child to encounter new foods and forcing them, physically or otherwise, to eat them.
      - kbenson 6y ago
        There's something to be said for this, but I also don't think the GP literally meant forcing them. Forcing children to eat something can cause aversion and eating problems. That said, I am a fan of strongly incentivizing thought promising a later treat for the first few times there's something new to try that I want them to give a fair shake to.
        SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
        > but I also don't think the GP literally meant forcing them We only have the GP's words: and at face value, as they should be taken, they do seem to literally mean that.
        kbenson 6y ago
        To a degree. Hyperbole and idioms are a normal part of communication, as is learning to decipher meaning from them. If someone said something along the lines of "I would kill my son if they did that", would you take that literally, or as a hyperbolic idiom meaning they would be mad at them and punish them? I think the actual meaning of the statement in question is ambiguous given the above, and providing for the option that you misinterpreted someone's meaning when condemning their speech likely does a lot to keep the discussion civil and useful.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  >Have you tried it more than 50 times Over the years, I must have. It's invariant. This is _not_ an "acquired taste" thing, it is simply unpalatable to some, and you can kindly stop pushing it.
verst 6y ago
I didn't like beer, wine, whiskey or coffee at 16 or 18 and now do. I don't know when I started liking black licorice but surely I didn't eat that as a toddler. I remember my parents giving it to me when I couldn't sleep pretending it was a sleep medication. It worked haha
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  Are you saying that you went from the "hate liquorice" to the "like liquorice" camp? At what age? I literally don't know of anyone who has "acquired" the taste for liquorice via exposure. It's really nothing like "aging into" the preference for coffee, beer, whiskey or wine. It's more like the preference for coriander / cilantro, which is genetic. I appreciate that your experience of liquorice is different to mine, but I ask you to stop explaining my experience of liquorice to me.
  - verst 6y ago
    I don't think anyone is explaining your experience. You always hated it and still do. No big deal. However you seem to reject the idea people can go from disliking it to liking it, which isn't the case. Nobody claimed you can force yourself to enjoy it :)
    - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
      > you seem to reject the idea people can go from disliking it to liking it, which isn't the case I'm saying that I have never seen this happen when the person has the "liquorice averse" reaction, which is not simple a regular food preference or toddler with unfamiliar food thing. And so I am very sceptical. You say it "isn't the case" but ... nothing more. Ok, that does not convince me.

dylan604 6y ago

Sort of like Jaegermeister. I can't believe people drink that by choice.

pengaru 6y ago
There are a lot of "digestif" [0] alcoholic drinks experientially very similar to Jaegermeister, it's kind of a thing to be medicinal. The American pracice of drinking Jaegermeister to excess I get the impression is done because it tastes so bad, like it's fun because it's so gross and we're sharing this exceptional though still mild form of suffering while getting wasted. Misery loves company as they say. Social drinking to excess in general has always struck me as a form of shared suffering, Jaeger is just on the extreme end of emphasizing it. Very few alcoholic beverages actually taste genuinely good IMHO, unless it's a cocktail full of flavored syrup like a liquid Jolly Rancher. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap%C3%A9ritif_and_digestif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap%C3%A9ritif_and_digestif
- e_y_ 6y ago
  It's good for a single round of shots, just to add some variety and the shared experience thing. It's definitely not something you'd want to drink all night. I don't like the taste of alcohol, but clearly some people do, so I'm thinking it's either an acquired taste (or psychological dependency) or some people just have different taste buds or something. I think it's recently become a bit more acceptable to admit that you only drink to be social, though.
barsonme 6y ago
It’s very tasty if you like the taste of licorice and cough syrup. :)
verst 6y ago
Americans think that Germans drink a lot of Jaegermeister or love that stuff. I only ever saw old people drinking that in Germany, or people on a dare... I am pretty sure Jaegermeister is more popular in the US than Germany

pwinnski 6y ago

Across the bay in Poulsbo, there's a little store with quite a few varieties of licorice, including some very salty stuff.

zwieback 6y ago

I grew up in Germany as well (Stuttgart) and love licorice, don't eat too much here but there are quite a few stores that carry it. Most NW IPAs are nasty, enough said. Luckily the microbrewers are coming off their hops high and returning to drinkable beers again. Lots of great lagers in Oregon right now.

kbenson 6y ago
My understanding is that IPA are extremely forgiving compared to lagers, because the hops. If so, that explains to some degree why microbreweries like to make them, they're probably considerably easier to make in a consistent quality than a lager. It makes good sense to build a name and reputation on easier to produce items and use that to perfect more complex and demanding things.
verst 6y ago
Gotta love all the "German style" beers that still taste like watery IPAs and nothing like the German beer they pretend to imitate. I hear the kind of hops and water they use may be partially to blame
sudosteph 6y ago
Moved from Seattle to Asheville, and having good non-IPA options has been killer. I've talked to few folks here who say that sours are the new hotness. Not sure if thats a regional thing or a broader trend. Either way, suits my taste much better.
- verst 6y ago
  I love sours :) I'm jealous!

shard 6y ago

I've come across a few foods that appear to be heavily acquired tastes, and if you did not get used to it as a kid, it is very difficult to change your tastes. Licorice is definitely one for me, it makes me feel like I am eating tree sap. Others include perilla leaves (called sesame leaves in Korean cuisine) and cilantro (people who are not used to it says it tastes like soap).

pivo 6y ago
> cilantro (people who are not used to it says it tastes like soap) The soap taste of cilantro is attributed to genetics: https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-cilantro-taste-lik...
- eridan2 6y ago
  also the bitter brussel sprout: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/nov/01/brussel-sprout-gene https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/nov/01/brussel...
colordrops 6y ago
Speaking of Koreans, when I lived in Beijing, we used to call cilantro "Korean Kryptonite". It's in many Chinese dishes but the many Koreans that lived in Beijing hated it with a passion.
aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y ago
There are some great YouTube videos of people around the world trying foods from different countries for the first time. Watching people gag on American staples like root beer is a lot of fun.
pengaru 6y ago
Something I've discovered is one way to acquire a taste for things you want to like eating is to narrow your diet substantially to where that thing forms a substantial component of your sustenance. Obviously this isn't a great idea if that thing is a junk food snack or the like, but if it's a nutritious healthy kind of thing you just don't enjoy yet, in my experience this method acquires an appreciation and even craving for it within a few months. It's as if the body learns this is the stuff of survival that's in season now.

joezydeco 6y ago

What do you think of Waldmeister? I love that flavor, everyone around me doesn’t agree.

verst 6y ago
Haha Waldmeister - I love that flavor though the syrup is disgustingly sweet. I have no idea what flavor it is even pretending to be...

icedistilled 6y ago

At least in california, cost plus world market sells some, or did last I was in there. I actually enjoy the stuff, I just can't finish a whole piece.