# My friend says I can't taste bitter because I can't taste the paper.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 27, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115 "2003-01-27T00:07:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/1 "2003-01-27T00:07:53Z")
It was a late evening at the bar one day when my friend pulls out these tabs of paper and tells me to put it on my tongue. “Woe man, I’m up for a few shots if you want, but I don’t know nuthin’ about little tabs of paper.”, I thought to myself. Nevertheless, he told me that these tabs would be able to tell whether or not I can taste bitter. So I put it on my tongue, but I can taste nothing.
Now I am a fairly decent chef. I have never had any complaints, so I find it difficult to beleive that my set of taste buds is anything less than complete. I claim that I may not be able to taste that particular compound just like some people can’t smell cyanide, but I know what bitter tastes like, but he says I have never tasted bitter and never will.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/2 "2003-01-27T00:50:50Z")
Sounds like it was probably [PTC paper](http://genetics-education-partnership.mbt.washington.edu/cool/tools/ptcpaper.html). Some people don’t have the gene that allows them to taste this particular chemical – which _doesn’t_, as you’ve probably already surmised, mean that they are unable to taste other bitter things.
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### Author:  [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/3 "2003-01-27T01:27:44Z")
That was my first thought too. We had that in biology class in high school. I could taste the chemical, but my first cousin couldn’t. It would have been interesting to trace the inheritance of the gene through our family, but we never got around to it.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/4 "2003-01-27T01:34:52Z")
I’m a non-PTC taster. From all accounts, I don’t think I’m missing anything.
IIRC, there was a thread a while back which discussed the idea that non-PTC tasters such as myself _are_ generally below par when it comes to the sense of taste. I don’t recall finding the argument particularly persuasive, though.
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### Author:  [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/5 "2003-01-27T01:45:59Z")
I just thought I’d pop by and note, for the non-tasters among us, that PTC tastes like earwax. Blech.
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### Author:  [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/6 "2003-01-27T03:39:56Z")
And here’s me wondering just how you come to know what earwax tastes like. Double blech.:eek:
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/7 "2003-01-27T05:49:09Z")
PTC taster here.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/8 "2003-01-27T11:01:39Z")
I was the only kid in my high school biology class who couldn’t taste the paper.
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/9 "2003-01-27T12:19:55Z")
I once worked with a food technologist who used to train milk-truck drivers many years ago. Back in those days they were pretty technical about testing a load of milk before it went into the tanker. They took a glass and sniffed and then tasted it. Anything suspicious was rejected. The drivers had to be able to identify specific problems by taste and smell, and one required them to distinguish bitter and sour. This was explained with the use of caffeine as the bitter agent.
Apparently quite a few people realllly can’t taste bitter. They can taste sour perfectly, which they think is bitter, but they don’t respond to bitter at all. As such they were immediately disqualified form driving a milk truck.
Don’t know how much that anecdote’s woth but it comes from a reliable source (via yours truly, who is a much less reliable source).
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### Author:  [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/10 "2003-01-27T17:08:14Z")
We did the same in class, about 3/4 could taste it (myself included) and the others could not. Nothing was mentioned about not being able to detect other flavors, just the presence of that particular chemical.
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### Author:  [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/11 "2003-01-27T18:58:47Z")
Whoa, I never heard of this before. Does PTC naturally occur in food products?
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/12 "2003-01-27T20:10:48Z")
[http://www.sciencenews.org/sn\_arc97/7\_12\_97/bob1.htm](http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc97/7_12_97/bob1.htm)
> **[Yale School of Medicine](https://medicine.yale.edu/)**
>
> At the forefront of educating tomorrow’s physician scientists, advancing medicine through scientific discovery, and improving health
some articles on PTC. BTW, where did you get the PTC paper? I’ve never tried the test, but I think it might start explaining my aversion to a number of foods
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### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/13 "2003-01-27T21:16:04Z")
Just curious, how many of the PTC tasters like/dislike dill pickles?
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-friend-says-i-cant-taste-bitter-because-i-cant-taste-the-paper/151115/14 "2003-01-27T23:47:11Z")
i went to a doctor in '98 and he put some junk in my mouth and asked if i could taste it. i couldn’t, but i don’t know if it was ptc or not. he said it indicated a vitamin/mineral/who-knows-what deficiency.