# A study on cilantro. With poll! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903 "2011-03-24T23:02:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/41 "2011-03-25T14:17:57Z")
Love it, smell and taste. Can’t get enough! ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/42 "2011-03-25T14:42:06Z")
I love fresh cilantro and add it to just about everything. A few sprigs of it turns my cold cut sandwich into Super Bag Lunch. I’ll tear it into pieces and sprinkle it on my spaghetti. Or baked fish. Or chicken soup. Or pasta salad. It doesn’t overpower any dish for me, either. If it’s meat-based, fish-based, or tomato-based, cilantro is _required_. Optional, but highly preferred, in everything else. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/43 "2011-03-25T14:56:33Z")
I’m a soap-taster. The smallest amount of cilantro in something makes the whole thing taste like Ivory soap smells. And it’s a lingering taste, too. I found this out my first time trying pho. It was not a happy experience. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/44 "2011-03-25T15:03:20Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > They’re confounding the two issues. The hatred doesn’t arrive from being a supertaster. Non-supertasters often dislike (or more accurately, take no joy in consuming), things with subtle flavors. (They tend to like foods based more on youthful associations and texture.) > > It could be that the people who dislike something like cilantro so much are perceiving only one part of its cumulative sensory effect, because they are in fact non-supertasters. Either that, or we’re perceiving something the rest of you are not. Until the mechanism is discovered it could just as easily be an “extra” as a “lack”. The whole supertasting thing started with the bitter flavors - but cilantro doesn’t take bitter to me at all. Just because I say it tastes like soap or cleaning fluid or Satan’s backside doesn’t mean it’s _bitter_ - it means it doesn’t taste like food to me. It tastes like soap, but not like exceptionally bitter soap, or even mildly bitter soap. Or whatever the hell that stuff tastes like. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/45 "2011-03-25T15:04:32Z")
I originally voted that I loved both smell and taste of cilantro, but was unsure whether I was a supertaster or not. However, reading a link posted upwards in this thread, I can reasonably be sure that I am _not_ a supertaster: > [@](#): > > Supertasters tend to dislike strong, bitter foods like raw broccoli, grapefruit juice, coffee and dark chocolate. I love all of those things. Even more than the juice, I love grapefruit plucked right off the tree and eaten like an orange. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/46 "2011-03-25T18:50:08Z")
I wouldn’t rule it out, still; I love all those things (I can taste the bitter in them and still enjoy the interplay of all the flavours). One food I don’t like (smell or taste) is celery, which actually IS poisonous. ---
**Author:** ![wonder\_lust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@wonder\_lust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder_lust)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/47 "2011-03-26T20:28:37Z")
I’m a supertaster. Did the paper test thing in high school. I LOVE LOVE LOVE cilantro – fresh, dried, whatever. Mmmmm. I also love raw broccoli, grapefruit juice, coffee and dark chocolate. What I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE is goat cheese. It is the demon cheese of barnyard grime. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/48 "2011-03-26T20:35:40Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’m a soap-taster. The smallest amount of cilantro in something makes the whole thing taste like Ivory soap smells. And it’s a lingering taste, too. > > I found this out my first time trying pho. It was not a happy experience. You have cilantro in pho? I only get served basil with mine. Yum! And I’m with Broomstick in my hatred of soapy cilantro. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/49 "2011-03-26T20:47:01Z")
I’m not sure where I stand, with respect to the poll options. I taste the soapy flavor, and eating a sprig of cilantro straight would make me gag, but in small amounts in a dish I actually kind of like it. And that bitter stuff that only some people can taste that you learn about in high school biology tastes bitter to me, which is I think what the OP is referring to with supertasters. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/50 "2011-03-26T21:21:40Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Either that, or we’re perceiving something the rest of you are not. Until the mechanism is discovered it could just as easily be an “extra” as a “lack”. > > The whole supertasting thing started with the bitter flavors - but cilantro doesn’t take bitter to me at all. Just because I say it tastes like soap or cleaning fluid or Satan’s backside doesn’t mean it’s _bitter_ - it means it doesn’t taste like food to me. It tastes like soap, but not like exceptionally bitter soap, or even mildly bitter soap. Or whatever the hell that stuff tastes like. This is exactly my experience with it. Eating something with cilantro in it is tastes like whatever it is was cooked in dish water to me. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/51 "2011-03-27T00:11:13Z")
It doesn’t taste like soap to me, it just overwhelms the dish it was in and I can taste nothing else but it. I had a ceviche once with it in it and all I could taste was cilantro, it overwhelmed the taste of the fish! ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/52 "2011-03-27T00:38:27Z")
Cooked in dishwater! Perfect description! And not only do I hate the smell and taste, but even the tiniest hint of it will upset my stomach and I will burp it for the next three days. ---
**Author:** ![LilShieste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@LilShieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilShieste)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/53 "2011-03-28T00:30:52Z")
I’m not sure if I’m a supertaster, but I can’t stand cilantro. I never noticed its taste until I traveled to India, though. For example, I used to eat Chipotle burritos all the time (wherein they prepare their rice with cilantro). Before my trip to India, the rice just tasted like rice; I never even tasted the cilantro. But _after_ my trip, I could taste the cilantro in any dish that had it, regardless of its quantity. The only thing that I’ve encountered that can successfully mask the flavor is a spicy sauce or salsa. (Which works well, since I _usually_ only encounter cilantro when I eat Mexican or Indian dishes.) ETA - like **Flutterby** , I don’t find that it tastes like dishwater, it just overpowers anything else in the dish. ---
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/54 "2011-03-29T19:30:55Z")
To me, cilantro tastes like doll hair smells. I guess that’s what other people are describing as soapy? ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/55 "2011-03-30T01:48:29Z")
These cilantro discussions always make me kinda sad. There are a lot of foods that people experience differently but more than probably anything else I wish the cilantro haters could taste cilantro the same way the cilantro lovers do, because there’s no other flavor out there that’s like it. I really don’t even know how to describe how _I_ taste it to somebody who tastes it differently. It’s just this fresh, bright flavor that adds so much to anything it’s put in. Pho, salsa, barbacoa, lengua, they just don’t taste right to me if I can’t taste the cilantro. I’m not sure if I’m the deficient one or if they are, but if loving cilantro is wrong I don’t wanna be right. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/56 "2011-03-30T02:36:32Z")
> [@Terraplane](#): > > I’m not sure if I’m the deficient one or if they are, but if loving cilantro is wrong I don’t wanna be right. 🙂 As my Sainted Mother used to say, “They just don’t know what’s good!” ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903/57 "2011-03-30T03:11:32Z")
The smell is horrific, and I’d rather eat puke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-study-on-cilantro-with-poll/575903.md?page=2)