# What is a super taster? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726 "2014-03-14T21:35:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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 16, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/21 "2014-03-16T11:18:08Z")
No, I don’t think being a supertaster means you can’t enjoy beer or have an over-developed sensibility to minute difference in food. What it means isn’t even rigidly defined - is it having more taste receptors, or being able to detect things others can’t? This is why I think being a supertaster is a multi-factor thing. Am I a super-taster because I can detect that whatever-it-is that makes cilantro taste like a cross between soap and Pine Sol? But I like bitter foods like broccoli and tea and beer, and I like sour foods to the point I’ll eat a lemon like most people will eat an orange. A lot of what people eat is based on familiarity and habit, too. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/22 "2014-03-16T13:13:15Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No, I don’t think being a supertaster means you can’t enjoy beer or have an over-developed sensibility to minute difference in food. What it means isn’t even rigidly defined - is it having more taste receptors, or being able to detect things others can’t? Let me repeat: There is not one form of supertasting. There are several. Generally it means a person can taste something the majority can’t. It can be having a variant gene that means being able to taste a particular substance or it can mean having more taste buds overall. ---
**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 16, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/23 "2014-03-16T14:47:57Z")
Yeah, that was a sort of rhetorical question on my part, in several other posts I’ve said pretty much the same thing you did. Yet people go on and on as if “supertaster” had a specific definition and they all had consistent qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/24 "2014-03-16T16:46:13Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > I’m told that 85% of the population thinks aspartame tastes just like sugar, and it still amazes me that the diet softdrink industry would have so universally embraced an ingredient that 15% of the population (including me) thinks tastes awful. I have the same incredulity about cilantro in the restaurant industry, but evidently they still get enough customers. I’d be very surprised if that many people really thought aspartame tasted just like sugar though. I’d expect most to say that it’s different but just close enough to be tolerable in things like sodas. > [@](#): > > I mean, saccharine was bad (I mean _tastes_ bad, although it is also a carcinogen), but aspartame is just intolerable. Saccharin is a carcinogen _in rats_. [Humans have little to worry about from a health perspective](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin#Warning_label_addition_and_removal). ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/25 "2014-03-16T23:25:11Z")
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_np-f6zVb98/hqdefault.jpg "BBC Horizon - The Truth About Taste (2013)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_np-f6zVb98) A bbc Horizon episode on this exact (partially) topic. Super tasters have a truck load of taste buds for starters. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/26 "2014-03-17T07:28:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Can you buy this paper? You can get it online. I got some - on the very tip of my tongue, nothing. A tiny bit back on my tongue and I couldn’t get it out of my mouth fast enough and had to try to wash, scrub, & rinse that taste out. Horribly bitter. I don’t know what that means. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/27 "2014-03-17T18:26:22Z")
Amarinth (and other PTC tasters), do you like cilantro? Oh- PTC stands for phenylthiocarbamide. Carbamide is a synonym for urea. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/28 "2014-03-17T21:35:32Z")
Just one thing in regard to the activity of measuring the bumps on your tongue as an indicator of being a taster or a supertaster. Those bumps are not, as most people seem to think, taste buds. They are called papillae. The taste buds are usually in the crevices between them and sometimes along their sides. Consequently, there’s some question as to the correlation between the density of these bumps and the ability to taste or supertaste. In fact, my granddaughter is in the midst of a science fair project on this very topic, and I’ll be interested in seeing what she finds out. If this thread is still available, I’ll post what she finds out. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/29 "2014-03-17T21:53:34Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Amarinth (and other PTC tasters), do you like cilantro? It doesn’t taste like soap to me. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/30 "2014-03-18T01:01:15Z")
> [@Number](#): > > I’d be very surprised if that many people really thought aspartame tasted just like sugar though. I’d expect most to say that it’s different but just close enough to be tolerable in things like sodas. I don’t know about most people, but I’d say it’s somewhat bitter, but also sweet. It’s like sugar but without the bite, if that makes any sense. The bitterness gets worse the higher the temperature. And there is some hard to define flavor to it that mutes out other flavors, which is why diet can never taste exactly like regular sodas. Saccharin is like this, but only worse. Sucralose (aka Splenda) is like this but a lot better, to the point that, in some cases, you can actually mistake it for sugar. (But still it will not make a diet soda taste like regular.) Stevia is closer to saccharin, but the sweetness is different. I think that different people taste the bitterness of artificial sweeteners to different degrees. I don’t think it’s bivalent, but a continuum. I know some people who insist they cannot tell the difference between Coke Zero and regular Coke. Those same people often say, though, that they can’t tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke. I think they may be the polar opposite of supertasters. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/31 "2014-03-20T17:53:53Z")
I thought supertasting applied to all the tastes, not just bitter. For example, someone who doesn’t like sweets very much might be a “sweet” supertaster and just get overwhelmed by too much sweet. And I thought a person could be kind of an “undertaster” too. I looooove sweets so I might have fewer (or less powerful?) sweet receptors and be able to handle a lot of sweetness compared to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Slippery\_Sid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Slippery\_Sid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slippery_Sid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/32 "2014-03-20T23:59:05Z")
I think your perception of vegetables changes based on what you have eaten recently, and how hungry you are. I used to think kale tastes like metal, and left a bitter quarry taste for a long time. Now that I’ve stopped eating carbs and sugar and salt, it’s a lot more tolerable, but still tastes like paper. So your taste buds must adapt to your needs. What really annoys me is teenagers who don’t eat vegetables because “only nerds care about their health, cool kids only eat junk food” ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/33 "2014-03-21T18:07:08Z")
Since I used to work in sensory evaluation of beer, I’ve got some background here. Everyone tastes everything differently. That is why we tried to have at least three different tasters when we were evaluating a batch. As an example, the compound DMS is often described as having a vegetal or “cooked corn” flavor. One of our testers could barely detect it at any concentration, whereas I could pick it up from a mile away. Conversely, he could taste DES (diethyl sulfides) at very low concentrations at it took a ton of them for me to notice. I actually had my tastebuds “calibrated”, at least for most of the common off-flavors in beer by measuring the concentration at which I could perceive them when mixed in water. As **ftg** says , there are many different types of supertasters. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/34 "2014-03-21T21:13:42Z")
I can’t tell much difference between $5 scotch and $50 scotch. I’ve never spent more than $10 on a bottle of vodka cause it all tastes the same to me. I love Broccoli and beer but hate cilantro as it tastes bitter as fuck. Well, more soapy than bitter. What is cilantro like to super tasters? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/35 "2014-03-21T21:22:07Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > I love Broccoli and beer but hate cilantro as it tastes bitter as fuck. Well, more soapy than bitter. > > What is cilantro like to super tasters? Very bitter with a hint of soap. Quite unpleasant. Unfortunately, **Mrs. FtG** loves the stuff and is always putting it on salads and on top of casseroles. She buys a bunch most weeks. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/36 "2014-03-21T23:57:37Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > What is cilantro like to super tasters? As far as I know, cilantro aversion and super-tasting are unrelated issues. There’s apparently a specific gene mutation that makes cilantro taste like soap and/or rot to some of us. I’ve never heard anything about that mutation being directly related to any other perception issues, although my gut says that perception differences are like allergies–people who have one are likely to have more than one. That said, I can taste PTC, and although I’ve never been bored enough to dye my tongue, my husband and some of his friends are convinced I’m a super-taster because flavors they all think are pretty subtle are really intense to me and I pick up stuff they don’t. I’m also a soap-taster, and a pretty intense one. Have you ever been in a restaurant dishroom at the end of a weekend night? You know that overwhelming smell of garbage and soap that permeates the air? That’s what cilantro tastes like to me. > [@ftg](#): > > Very bitter with a hint of soap. Quite unpleasant. Unfortunately, **Mrs. FtG** loves the stuff and is always putting it on salads and on top of casseroles. That kind of thing drives me nuts, because honestly how hard is it to just wait and put it on your own serving? The cilantro lovers around me think I’m obnoxious and over the top in pointing out just how much I hate that vile shit, but when I tried to be polite and restrained about the issue, they’d pour it all over the entire serving vessel. Every. Single. Time. And tell me, “Oh, it’s just on the top, you can eat around it,” as though the oils don’t get all over everything and contaminate the whole meal. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/37 "2014-03-22T02:14:58Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > …I actually had my tastebuds “calibrated”, at least for most of the common off-flavors in beer by measuring the concentration at which I could perceive them when mixed in water… This intrigues me. What types of results did you get? How did that compare with others? ---
**Author:** ![Slippery\_Sid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@Slippery\_Sid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slippery_Sid)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/38 "2014-03-22T07:59:49Z")
cilantro tastes just weird to me, it’s like a dirty diaper or somethin ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/39 "2014-03-22T14:56:24Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > As far as I know, cilantro aversion and super-tasting are unrelated issues. There’s apparently a specific gene mutation that makes cilantro taste like soap and/or rot to some of us. I’ve never heard anything about that mutation being directly related to any other perception issues, although my gut says that perception differences are like allergies–people who have one are likely to have more than one. > > That said, I can taste PTC, and although I’ve never been bored enough to dye my tongue, my husband and some of his friends are convinced I’m a super-taster because flavors they all think are pretty subtle are really intense to me and I pick up stuff they don’t. I’m also a soap-taster, and a pretty intense one. Have you ever been in a restaurant dishroom at the end of a weekend night? You know that overwhelming smell of garbage and soap that permeates the air? That’s what cilantro tastes like to me. > > That kind of thing drives me nuts, because honestly how hard is it to just wait and put it on your own serving? The cilantro lovers around me think I’m obnoxious and over the top in pointing out just how much I hate that vile shit, but when I tried to be polite and restrained about the issue, they’d pour it all over the entire serving vessel. Every. Single. Time. And tell me, “Oh, it’s just on the top, you can eat around it,” as though the oils don’t get all over everything and contaminate the whole meal. You speak the truth. Even the smallest amount of cilantro totally ruins an otherwise tasty dish. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726/40 "2014-03-22T16:04:11Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I can’t eat bitter greens, nor can I drink hoppy beer like IPA. It’s taken 20 years to get my wife to stop serving me raggedy edged salad greens. I can handle something like broccoli, but asparagus is right on the edge and must be grilled. I don’t know if it is associated, but I also have a very acute sense of smell. Just being nosy, would that be green asparagus? My brother Mr. Smell\* likes white ones, as did Dad (who couldn’t stand the taste of “uncured” cucumber) and I (keep the cilantro away; cucumber and melon always taste bitter; most sweet things are too sweet), but we all hate green ones. I’ve tried to get over the “yech, asparagus shouldn’t be green” revulsion attributing it to cultural factors; it’s not really working. - he’s been known to enter the flat and say “oooh nice, lentil soup!.. But you’ve put something new in it, what is it?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-super-taster/683726.md?page=3)