# What's the weirdest taste you've ever encountered? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544 "2010-05-24T05:29:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/21 "2010-05-24T18:31:32Z")
One night my wife and I had dinner at a local Greek restaurant and their drink special that night was a Greek margarita. Basically a margarita made with ouzo instead of tequila. I thought I’d give it a try. It tasted a lot like Ny-Quil, only worse. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/22 "2010-05-24T19:49:14Z")
One crazy night in high school we ran out of strawberry mix for the daqueries. So we started using black raspberry jam, which was awesome. then we ran out of jam, and by then, the next logical thing seemed to be peanut butter. Very strange indeed. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/23 "2010-05-24T20:48:00Z")
Bitter melon. Like chewing on a tobacco-sized plug of wet grass…huuuuuuuuuuurl ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/24 "2010-05-24T20:54:58Z")
Coconut water. I know unsweetened coconut isn’t terribly sweet, but coconut water was almost salty. And the gelatinous goo that you scoop out of the coconut and eat was weird. Not awful, but definitely weird. Oh, and capybara. That was an odd taste, but I think a lot of the strange taste was knowing what I was eating. ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/25 "2010-05-24T21:05:17Z")
Ear wax ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/26 "2010-05-24T22:59:08Z")
> [@Surok](#): > > I’ll throw caviar-flavored potato chips into the mix. You can almost see why the manufacturers thought it might be a good idea for the Russian market. But buy a bag of them, and you realize very quickly that all your instincts are right, and that any form of fish-flavored chips just seems very, very wrong. How about chocolate-flavored cheese? I ate one tiny piece of it and wanted to barf. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/27 "2010-05-25T04:27:54Z")
Steamrollers used to be a roll peppermint, packaged like Lifesavers. They started some variant flavours, like spearmint. So far, so good. Then they experimented with peanut flavour. It was salty, cardboardy and bland all at the same time, and just plain odd. I think the not-quite-right peanut taste with a texture that suggested mints and sweets threw my expectations into freefall. Why on earth they ever took that to market, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Joanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@Joanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joanie)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/28 "2010-05-25T04:32:11Z")
Milk and Orange Juice combined. Save your money on buying Ipecac. Drink a medium sized glass of this potion and you will vomit it out right away. I dont’ know why. I just know that it does. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/29 "2010-05-25T04:40:39Z")
From the import grocery, I had some aloe drink, complete with bits of aloe pulp. I didn’t care for the pulpy bits, but the taste was not bad - a lot like fresh white grape juice. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/30 "2010-05-25T04:51:58Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > I was at an Indian restaurant in Las Vegas (Gaylord’s at the Rio) a few years ago. As part of my appetizer, I received a small dish of what they called mint chutney. It _looked_ disgusting. Kind of like a pea and phlegm smoothy but it had a wonderful, indescribable flavor. I could barely even taste the mint. The flavors were complex, overlapping and very delicate. I wish I had more I love mint chutney, and I agree it doesn’t taste much like mint. I have a container of freshly prepared chutney from the Indian market in my fridge right now. The weirdest thing I ever tasted was a canned starfruit drink. It’s a hobby of mine to go to the Chinese market and buy random snacks and drinks in addition to my usual purchases. Sometimes these random foodstuffs are delicious. Sometimes…not so much. You’d think a starfruit drink would be fruity, but no. It tasted like the shoe section of a department store. Leathery, salty, foot-odory. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/31 "2010-05-25T05:03:15Z")
Black Walnut ice cream. Shudder. Kimchi. Hurl. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/32 "2010-05-25T05:12:04Z")
As long as we’re discussing the delights of the Orient, stinky tofu isn’t all that weird, except for the part where you’re chewing it VERY quickly and trying to figure out why anyone would want to eat something that tastes exactly like what dog shit smells like. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/33 "2010-05-25T05:14:35Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > You’d think a starfruit drink would be fruity, but no. It tasted like the shoe section of a department store. Leathery, salty, foot-odory. Hey, [keep that stuff away from](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=starfruit+poisonous&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g-sx1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) our friend **kidneyfailure** , whatever you do! ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/34 "2010-05-25T08:08:04Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > As long as we’re discussing the delights of the Orient, stinky tofu isn’t all that weird, except for the part where you’re chewing it VERY quickly and trying to figure out why anyone would want to eat something that tastes exactly like what dog shit smells like. Y’know, I have heard Chinese people rant on and on and on about how great that shit tastes, but I just cannot bring myself to eat it. It fucking stinks! Yes, I know…“stinky tofu” ought to stink, right? Well, whatever. It may be the best tasting thing on Earth, but I can’t get past the smell. > [@Koxinga](#): > > Hey, [keep that stuff away from](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=starfruit+poisonous&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g-sx1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=) our friend **kidneyfailure** , whatever you do! Heh 🙂 Note to self: avoid starfruit if I ever do develop real kidney problems. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/35 "2010-05-25T08:27:27Z")
Dr. Brown’s Celery Soda…strange tasting, vile soft drink. Available at finer lunch counters. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/36 "2010-05-25T10:44:19Z")
> [@wunderkammer](#): > > [Musk lifesavers.](http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/lifesaver_musk/) > > I had a cold at the time and couldn’t smell, so I didn’t spit it out right away like my classmates. Tasted like Tums. I listened bemusedly to my professor’s lesson about culturally conditioned flavor preferences. Smug, too, because I didn’t have a silly disgusted look on my face. > > Then in the middle of class, my nose cleared up. > > (Hack/Cough/Retch/OMGWTFmakeitstop!) > > Not a smell you want following you from _inside your mouth._ Musk is a medieval and middle eastern flavoring, lightly floraly and musky, I happen to like it [but then again I am one of those wierd americans who likes vegemite, promite and marmite =)] I have aussie friends send me musk sticks and musk lifesavers [along with an annual packet of timtams =)] But then again, I have done a fair amount of research in roman, medieval european and persian foods, and have aculturated myself to nontypically american flavor combinations. In my house, you are as likely to have isicia omentata, patina de piris, fabaciae virides et baianae and mustacei as bukkenade, makke and daryoles for dessert, as the full on turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, parker house rolls and pumpkin pie. My favorite persian medieval dish is [sikbaj](http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/islamic_w_veggies.html#1) which is a sweet/sour lamb dish. Great with a saffron pilaf, and a number of small side dishes. [seafood meatballs in sauce, pear custard, beans and small cookies made of wine lees] [a form of beef stew, refried beans, sort of and egg custard pies] [self explanitory =)] ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/37 "2010-05-25T20:15:05Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > . . . made of wine lees Is that the paste left over from the wine making process? I tasted some once, and have longed to find it again for cooking. Never knew the name or anything, is that it? Reddish pulpy paste, sweet in a brown-sugar kind of way with a strong red-wine flavor? And if so, knwo where I can buy some? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/38 "2010-05-25T20:39:56Z")
Malort. This crud is made in Chicago. From their own marketing: > [@](#): > > ``` > "Most first-time drinkers of Jeppson Malort reject our liquor. Its strong, sharp taste is not for everyone. Our liquor is rugged and unrelenting (even brutal) to the palate. During almost 60 years of American distribution, we found only 1 out of 49 men will drink Jeppson Malort. During the lifetime of our founder, Carl Jeppson was apt to say, 'My Malort is produced for that unique group of drinkers who disdain light flavor or neutral spirits.' > > It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor. The taste just lingers and lasts - seemingly forever. The first shot is hard to swallow! PERSERVERE [sic]. Make it past two 'shock-glasses' and with the third you could be ours...forever" > > ``` > > SOURCE: [Jeppson's Malört - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%B6rt) To me (and many others) it tastes a helluva lot like bug spray and I promise that is not hyperbole. It really does. Great stuff to use in a bet. Loser has to drink it. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/39 "2010-05-25T21:59:22Z")
There’s an ice cream shop in Seattle that had, on their specials board a chocolate ice cream with kumquats, olive oil & sea salt. I convinced a friend to buy it out of sick fascination and it was, indeed, exactly as bad as it sounds. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544/40 "2010-05-25T23:01:51Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Is that the paste left over from the wine making process? I tasted some once, and have longed to find it again for cooking. Never knew the name or anything, is that it? Reddish pulpy paste, sweet in a brown-sugar kind of way with a strong red-wine flavor? > > And if so, knwo where I can buy some? 🙂 yup, only made my own … part of the wine making process =( [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-taste-youve-ever-encountered/540544.md?page=3)