I’ve wondered if that’s a good thing or not. On the one hand you might have a more sensitive palate, awareness of tastes, etc. But on the other hand you night not like a lot of what people are cooking.

I always knew you were special!!!!

jc you need to come to the MW to taste some REAL food ... *grin* ... start at Annie's and end up at Martha's ...

Or we all head out west... I want to play with her appliances!

ROTFL!! I love all of you! Sooz, double LOL!

Dave, I read the beginning of your post and thought, "Jell-o?" but sure, Annie's and Martha's tables are tempting!

FOAS, it's true. A wake-up call. I do tolerate a lot of things but I'm beginning to remember that many started out as icky and I've taught myself to accept them. Like, poor, infamous broccoli. I don't actually like it, but I do eat it without wincing--as an adult.

I can't stand it disguised, like with cheese sauce, which just seems like polluting cheese sauce and making it taste bad without doing anything to improve the broccoli. In this further research, I learned that it's not just bitter, but all tastes that get amplified, and as I've been thinking about it, I've realized that it's true that I don't like sweets that are too sugary, brush the salt off of pretzels, and, for all that it's refreshing, have trouble dealing with grapefruit. But, as an adult, I do like a lot of things that supertasters aren't supposed to--but then I guess I'm really picky about how they're prepared...

Annie, thanks for the welcome! I like cooked eggplant. Love it actually. Even charred ME style. But if it isn't cooked to the texture of snot, I won't touch it, and before this test was sure that there were was something wrong with the people who didn't think undercooked eggplant was bitter! I have issues will all cruciferous vegetables, but it's the sulphur I can't deal with. I can manage the bitter. I mean, they're good for you, so I try to eat them if they don't stink. Or...I try if they're put in front of me. I like crunchy ruffled kale, but wouldn't seek out the rest. Hate olives, don't like coffee and like really good red wine if it's not highly tannic. That is, I like ancient vine mourvedre but won't drink cabernet sauvignon. These weren't on previous lists I'd seen. Hm...and if i have to eat an olive, I can deal with ancient olives, but not the hybrids. But I'll also drink a good merlot. :)

Annie, you're welcome here as well, and I'll try to avoid offering you anything slimy or wiggly. :)

:O)

Many years ago, I think it came in some magazine...or we ordered it from some magazine and there were strips of paper with a flavoring on them....and you ID'd the flavor as pleasant un pleasant, sweet sour bitter etc...or I don't taste anything.
I tasted all...my DH couldn't taste anything on some....but the result told me that I had an exceptional sense of taste...
BUT I find slightly bitter pleasant...I love a hoppy beer....dark coffee and chocolate. And my son LOVES bitter. As a toddler he would beg for some of the baking chocolate...I told him he wouldn't like it....but he did and asked for more.
As got broccoli, can't say it's a favorite....but for a few years I grew broccoli and fresh from the garden it's wonderful!!
And cooked eggplant, but not raw!....but I like a hoppy beer and olives, haven't met one I didn't like...love cabbage of all sorts, love rutabega which some think is bitter.....and a tannic red wine and an oaky chardonnay. but I really don't like Brussels Sprouts.

This is a different kind of test. Linda, I wouldn't be surprised if you have the large number of taste buds, and a heightened sense of taste altogether. This test I have isn't to test your actual ability to taste foods, but whether you have the genetic variations to taste these three specific chemicals. Half the population can taste the PTC, but as "bitter" rather than "vile". A quater get vile and a quarter don't taste it at all. I don't know how you'd feel about the PTC, but, unlike most of the lists in the magazines, you've named a lot of things that I really dislike, and find very bitter, rather than pleasantly. I'm totally fascinated by this because I had no idea, other than the cilantro thing, which is about aldehydes, that there were genes that determined whether or not we could taste things (the PTC "tasters" in the 50% have one copy of the gene, and the supers have two). Mind blown. :). The conclusions they draw is that these genes developed where poisonous plants were bitter.

Curiosity piqued; got a link for that test kit?

I was wondering the same, FOAS. Where does one get this test kit and do I really want to put something in my mouth that I might find “vile”?

I seriously doubt I’m a super taster. I love eggplant if it is properly cooked. I like olives and strong coffee. I can tolerate red wine. I do not care for spicy foods. Like annie1992, I’m a wuss; I would even say “super-wuss.” I love most all cruciferous vegetables. I’ve never found a dessert that was “too sweet,” although I do recognize when things are too salty. I don’t like “bitter.” DSIL made a batch of old-fashions for me. He stubbed his toe on the angostura bitters and it really doesn’t taste very good.

As an aside...sort of.
One time 20 years ago, I was walking with friends from the boat dock to a vineyard or monastery ( forget which) on an island in the Venetian Lagoon....and there was a plant we kept seeing on the path that looked like spinach. We wondered if it was wild spinach or planted? Well I took a leaf and chewed it.....and it was the most bitter thing I had ever put into my mouth!!! Even a candy or2 didn't get rid of the bitter taste. Likely would have poisoned me if I had eaten it....
Lesson learned....don't eat stray weeds along a path!!

@lindac92. OMG. Glad you survived.

Oh no, I eat weeds, but only the ones I'm familiar with, like lambsquarter or purslane, never something unidentified!

My doctor did the test for me just for "information", I had been talking to him and said that the vegetables at Subway had a metallic taste that I didn't care for but others said I was crazy. Turns out I was tasting the preservatives, you think that lettuce stays green all day by itself? (grin) So he said "let's try something", and we did. There's nothing to be done about it and it makes no real difference in health or anything, so it was just kind of an experiment on his part, and gave me an actual reason to be so picky, LOL.

Plllog, if I come your way again, I'll definitely stop by. No uni, please. Evil Jessica warned me that it tastes like "low tide", and she was right, it does. I always through I didn't like sushi, though, until I visited California and found out that I actually love most of it. Oddly enough, Michigan isn't the sushi capital of the US, something about being so far from the ocean, LOL, but the stuff in California was delicious. Of course, being from the Midwest, I liked the tempura battered and deep fried version best. Yeah...

Annie

Wonderful story, Linda! Thanks for sharing it. :)

I've been reading a ton of articles for weeks, and didn't make a bibliography, so you're on your own for interpretation. You can get the test strips from Amazon. I first got PTC test strips made by Precision Laboratories. The set of four I got looks identical to the PL set, but is branded Bartovation. Both brands sell all kinds of test strips for testing this and that, some for school experiments, and others for health and safety, and similar commercial/industrial uses.

Both brands sell the taste strips for doing simple genetic variance tests in the classroom, with good info on how to do the lesson, but little explanation of what it means about perception. For that I had to read all those other articles (which is where I found out about PTC in the first place). There's a lot more to taste and perception that I've learned about, and I've only scratched the surface.

PTC sensitivity, I think, has the most implications on actual perception. The other two are mostly interesting in that they show other genetic variations. Other than affecting the flavor when used as a preservative, I haven't found that the ability to taste sodium benzoate has any particular meaning. Some genetic variations are free riders. There's a survival trait that gets passed along but something else also happens. This could be one of them. Or maybe I just haven't found the right info on it.

More on bitter: There's a hundred year old brisket recipe that everybody loves. It uses Coca-cola for the braising liquid (the sugar and acid help break down the connective tissue, and the caramel coloring makes the juice a nice color). I use caffeine free coke when I make it--and tell others--because the caffeine is so bitter. (It never bothered me drinking diet coke back when I did. I assume there's a concentration as it cooks.)