# I've given up on cilantro **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 13, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571 "2008-11-13T18:59:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/41 "2008-11-14T02:02:45Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I must be the only person on the planet who can both taste the soapiness of cilantro and not completely hate it. In fact, I would completely love it had someone not pointed out its soapiness to me :mad:…but I still don’t mind it. I’m with you on this point. It tastes like soap, but in a good way. FWIW, I also kind of like the soap flavor beans from JB’s Berttie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/42 "2008-11-14T05:01:46Z")
Put me in the “soap” column. Fresh cilantro, once placed in a dish, makes the entire thing taste like it was marinated in Dawn soap. The worst is when it is thrown in something you wouldn’t expect it in, like a chicken wrap. All of a sudden, two bites in, it hits you… ---
**Author:** ![chocolatefrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/41988e/32.png) [@chocolatefrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chocolatefrog)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/43 "2008-11-14T05:14:04Z")
I love cilantro. It must be genetic. And yes I will eat the soap flavour in Bertie Bott’s too. ---
**Author:** ![Dosipede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dosipede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dosipede)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/44 "2008-11-14T05:26:57Z")
Oh, man. Thank you, thank you folks. I thought I was alone. The special lady friend puts fucking PILES of the stuff in everything she cooks. It’s vile. And lemongrass! Everything has lemongrass. I’ll be enjoying a great rice dish, and I’ll pick something out of my teeth, asking, “Honey? Did you pee on a plank of balsa wood, then chop it up in my dinner?” ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/45 "2008-11-14T05:32:34Z")
Ooh, I love lemongrass. Lemongrass & cilantro soup. Deee-lish! Add some hot pepper. Num, num! ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/46 "2008-11-14T12:27:04Z")
> [@cowgirl](#): > > It tastes like [Thrills Gum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrills) to me, which is apparently supposed to taste like rosewater (and, to many people, soap). Actually, I love rosewater. But I hate, HATE coriander/cilantro. Damned devil-herb finds its way into far too many restaurant foods. :mad: ETA: And I’m definitely with \*\*Dosipede \*\*on the lemongrass, too. Balsa is a good description! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/47 "2008-11-14T14:05:56Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I like cilantro. It doesn’t taste like soap to me. However, I keep hearing that it tastes like soap to a lot of folks. I’m afraid that someday I’ll have something with cilantro in it, and a light bulb will go off, and suddenly, I’ll go “ewwww, soap!”, and that’ll be the end of my cilantro-eating days. Somebody please tell me that won’t happen! No – it has never not tasted like soap to me. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/48 "2008-11-14T14:58:01Z")
My husband was chopping cilantro the other day, and because there were bits of it on the cutting board, a speck got onto my daughter’s carrot sticks. She tasted it and said, “Wow, that’s worse than salt water!” (She’s only 6, so salt water is so far the worst thing she has ever tasted…) ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/49 "2008-11-14T15:35:15Z")
My utter loathing of cilantro has mellowed over the years to an active dislike. I used to go to a vietnamese restaurant where they had lovely fresh spring rolls (the kind wrapped in a soft sheet of rick stick). Unfortunately, it was a crapshoot whether the greens would be mint or watercress (heavenly!) or cilantro (tastes like hate!). Ordering was like a $3 game of Russian Roulette. I have also been known to suspiciously sniff flat-leaf parsley, because cilantro is often misfiled at the store. I also taste an intolerable soapiness in papaya – I know there’s a genetic component to that too – I’m wondering if it’s the same one? ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/50 "2008-11-14T16:06:34Z")
> [@MissMossie](#): > > I’m with you on this point. It tastes like soap, but in a good way. FWIW, I also kind of like the soap flavor beans from JB’s Berttie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Me too - can taste the soap and actually kind of like it. Hell, it’s most of the reason why I order Meximelts from Taco Bell, for the cilantro they put in them. Yum! But my husband and FIL hate the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/51 "2008-11-14T20:51:43Z")
Off topic but my brother hates brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. It was very recent that I learned that they were in the same family of vegetables. There must be some chemical component that is off putting to him much like cilantro is to some people. I love all three of said vegetables, in fact they are probably my favorite three. No accounting for genetics I guess. And we did have the same parents in case you were wondering. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/52 "2008-11-14T21:12:35Z")
Add me to the hater’s club. I can detect it if a sprig has been waved over my tortilla soup or burrito. It makes me crazy to see all the recipes that call for a “fresh bunch of cilantro”. Ugh!! Why not just shave a few pieces of lever 2000 into the dish!:mad: ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/53 "2008-11-14T21:21:28Z")
> [@gravitycrash](#): > > Off topic but my brother hates brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. It was very recent that I learned that they were in the same family of vegetables. > > There must be some chemical component that is off putting to him much like cilantro is to some people. That chemical component would probably just be “the flavor.” 😉 Me? I hate anise. Blech. I won’t claim I’m allergic or anything, but if it got trendy and people started putting it in everything, I think I might start telling people I was allergic to it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/54 "2008-11-14T23:05:55Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > That chemical component would probably just be “the flavor.” 😉 I agree. Members of the brassica genus all have a signature funk in their flavor profile. I don’t think it’s genetics that makes **gravitycrash** ’s brother hate foods from this genus, he simply doesn’t like that flavor. I also think that a lot of cilantro haters don’t necessarily have the cilantro-hating gene (has that even been proven? So far as I know, it hasn’t); they simply don’t like the flavor of cilantro. I mean, I know what they mean when they say “soapy” flavor, but I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/55 "2008-11-14T23:17:22Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Then one of the guides in Barrahonda told us that cilantro is “very good for the heart.” > Me: wait a minute… “good for the heart” as in “lowers blood pressure”? > Him: yes, exactly! > Me: &()/! OK, that explains why it makes me dizzy - I have low blood pressure! :smack: Ya know, that does explain a lot. _sighs, and puts cilantro on foods best to be eaten in moderation_ ☹ * * * \<\< You are what you eat, so stay away from the jerk chicken. \>\> ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/56 "2008-11-14T23:34:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Then one of the guides in Barrahonda told us that cilantro is “very good for the heart.” > Me: wait a minute… “good for the heart” as in “lowers blood pressure”? That’s not lowered blood presure, that a bit more of your life-essence departing for the land of death and damnation every time you eat it. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/57 "2008-11-14T23:37:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I agree. Members of the brassica genus all have a signature funk in their flavor profile. I don’t think it’s genetics that makes **gravitycrash** ’s brother hate foods from this genus, he simply doesn’t like that flavor. I also think that a lot of cilantro haters don’t necessarily have the cilantro-hating gene (has that even been proven? So far as I know, it hasn’t); they simply don’t like the flavor of cilantro. I mean, I know what they mean when they say “soapy” flavor, but I like it. Genetic studies HAVE found that [some people can taste compounds that others can’t](http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bitter.html), and that those flavors can be quite unpleasant. It shouldn’t be hard to believe that he flavor of cilantro may very well be different for different people, and not simply a matter of “oh, you just don’t like that flavor.” Personally, I suspect there is a “soapy cilantro” gene, perhaps in a few different varieties like the PTC gene in the article above, and possibly it’s even the same gene. I can taste PTC, and I taste the soapiness in cilantro too. I don’t particularly like it because if there’s cilantro in something, it overwhelms ALL the other flavors. I don’t find it retch-inducingly vile like some people though, and I even find I do like it in certain salsas. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/58 "2008-11-14T23:43:10Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I must be the only person on the planet who can both taste the soapiness of cilantro and not completely hate it. In fact, I would completely love it had someone not pointed out its soapiness to me :mad:…but I still don’t mind it. I came in here to post this. As others have been mentioning, cilantro’s main flavor components are grassy, green - very chlorophylly and quite similar to parsley. That being said I wouldn’t say it’s an unfair comparison to relate some of the taste to soap. Of course this might just be the vogue new conformation bias in action. I distinctly recall a grade school experiment to determine who the supertasters in the group were. I believe it was a small strip of chemical-impregnated paper placed on the tongue, to some it was intensely bitter, to others (and myself) we noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Bell peppers, though. Fuck bell peppers. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/59 "2008-11-15T00:00:35Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Genetic studies HAVE found that [some people can taste compounds that others can’t](http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bitter.html). Sure. We did PTC tests in high school. I don’t doubt that there may be a genetic component to it, but I don’t necessarily think that everyone or even the vast majority of people who hate cilantro have this anti-cilantro gene. I taste PTC fine; I can taste the soapy quality of cilantro. But I happen to like cilantro. It is a very aggressive flavor for me, too–fresh and green, but with a soapy and back-of-the-tongue bitter astringency. I understand how people say it could overwhelm all other flavors. I could see how it’s an acquired taste for many–hell, it was an acquired taste for me. In the end, genetics or not, it really doesn’t matter. If you don’t like it, you just don’t like it. Whenever I make anything that contains cilantro and have people over, I ask, just in case, because it is a relatively common dislike. ---
**Author:** ![CAT\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CAT\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CAT_1)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571/60 "2008-11-15T03:31:19Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > Me too - can taste the soap and actually kind of like it. Hell, it’s most of the reason why I order Meximelts from Taco Bell, for the cilantro they put in them. Yum! > > But my husband and FIL hate the stuff. I am with you on this. It does taste soapy to me, but yet…I like it. 🙂 And I LOVE beef Meximelts for the same reason!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-given-up-on-cilantro/472571.md?page=4)