confusing bitter taste for sour

[daisy17]

My understanding is that "supertasters" have more tastebuds and an intolerance/strong aversion to bitter.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, that's sort of a sweeping generalization. Out of my panel of 12, some of us actually like bitter flavors (hence my obsession with stouts and IPAs) and some of us don't, it's opinion. Two colleagues get the bitter/sour flavors wrong a lot, and all of us have made the mistake at least once (I did it myself, a few weeks ago...and again, I enjoy and can taste bitterness).

"Aversion", that's where opinion figures in, and opinion is not a measurable thing. When I think of the word intolerance, I think of something that makes one physically ill, and I assure you, not one of us "supertasters" has ever gotten sick from the bitter flavor.

On a slightly related side note, the term "supertaster" is about as meaningful, in a professional setting, as "foodie". I use it here, because it's a recognizable term, but I get that it's sort of a media friendly catchall term.

That clears up some of my questions, so thanks. We did the lick-the-paperstrip-testy thing and I DEFINITELY tasted some vile bitterness there. But I love bitter - strongly prefer it in cocktails, certainly, and some food - and I wasn't sure what this meant.

[Lilija]

Well, no matter how much I like bitter presence in stuff, tasting it straight up for work is still yucky, and that's my off the books opinion, hehe. It's a great part of flavors, but plain straight up bitter dissolved in pure water is a lingering intense taste that always has me cringing. I imagine those strips are a lot like that. There's a difference between enjoying a strong bitter black cup of coffee, and getting a straight hit of it plain. So, yeah I totally agree about that, and I think that's sort of across the board, between regular tasters and so called super tasters.