"How to Tell if you're a Supertaster"

[Martin Fisher]

Via Nautilus:

"How to Tell if you're a Supertaster"

[andiesenji]

I know I am a supertaster or maybe a super-supertaster, although the latter classification was not used in the late '80s when I was part of a study at UCLA.

 

I can taste the difference between filtered tap water and bottled waters in a blind tasting.  The bottled waters ALL have a faint taste that to me is like silicone smells, or hot plastic.  

I have had people try to fool me and I can catch it every time.  

I don't drink alcohol because I have a severe allergy to it but I do cook with it. I make a meat pie made with Guinness which had, when cooked long enough and with the right ingredients, a hint of bitterness that is good.  Raw or not cooked enough, it is like touching my tongue to the base metal on a spoon where the silver plating has worn off.  It makes me shudder.

 

Edited November 10, 2017 by andiesenji (log)

[quiet1]

12 hours ago, andiesenji said:

I know I am a supertaster or maybe a super-supertaster, although the latter classification was not used in the late '80s when I was part of a study at UCLA.

 

I can taste the difference between filtered tap water and bottled waters in a blind tasting.  The bottled waters ALL have a faint taste that to me is like silicone smells, or hot plastic.  

I have had people try to fool me and I can catch it every time.  

I don't drink alcohol because I have a severe allergy to it but I do cook with it. I make a meat pie made with Guinness which had, when cooked long enough and with the right ingredients, a hint of bitterness that is good.  Raw or not cooked enough, it is like touching my tongue to the base metal on a spoon where the silver plating has worn off.  It makes me shudder.

 

 

 

Wait, people can't tell the difference between tap water and bottled waters? Different bottled waters taste different, too. (One of our dogs preferred Fiji brand and would not be fooled by tap water on a Fiji bottle, no. It was hilarious.)

 

(I can't use plastic reusable water bottles either - they make the water taste gross. Glass is preferred, but I can tolerate metal as the faint metallic smell/taste it leaves is not as offensively disgusting as plastic-taste.)

[lindag]

7 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

 (One of our dogs preferred Fiji brand and would not be fooled by tap water on a Fiji bottle, no. It was hilarious.)

 

That IS hilarious!!!

[SLB]

 

9 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

Wait, people can't tell the difference between tap water and bottled waters? Different bottled waters taste different, too. (One of our dogs preferred Fiji brand and would not be fooled by tap water on a Fiji bottle, no. It was hilarious.)

 

(I can't use plastic reusable water bottles either - they make the water taste gross. Glass is preferred, but I can tolerate metal as the faint metallic smell/taste it leaves is not as offensively disgusting as plastic-taste.)

 

I can't tell the difference between tap water and bottled water, as a rule. I can tell when I'm drinking water with minerals in it (sometimes), but that's true whether it comes out of the tap or the bottle.  I can tell when I'm drinking Evian, which I don't like. 

 

I definitely cannot detect a thing from a Nalgene bottle. 

 

I can sometimes taste something unpleasant in water from metal water bottles, but it may be psychosomatic, as I am prejudiced against them because I think they are more difficult to keep clean than the average person is really keeping up with.  

 

I'm definitely not a supertaster, though.  I used to be jealous, but then a friend who was one explained to me how hard it was to be around people after lunch.  Her specific quote was:  "I can tell if someone across the room had garlic with their lunch.  It doesn't smell like they ate garlic, it smells like they were rolling around in it."  A whole lot of food, she really couldn't eat.  It sounded like it would make a lot of fun stuff  . . . less fun.    

[andiesenji]

I read my previous post and think it suffered from being in the middle of the morning when I was juggling several tasks and moved back an forth between the computer and the bread machine, the Thermomix and the oven.  

 

What I did was something of a "party trick" - catching bottled water was easy and so was distilled water, even when oxygenated - but I could tell the difference between the two water cooler/dispenser waters we had in the office, Arrowhead and Sparkletts even when they put them in ceramic cups or glasses, instead of the paper cups.  No one could figure out how I did it but I was correct every time.

That is when the neurologist mentioned my "talent" to his colleague.  

I thought it was something to do with the coolers themselves, both were electric but they were sightly different and one had been in the other doctor's office before he moved to our suite.  We had gotten the Arrowhead when we moved into the new suite in November 1985.  There may have been something residual in it from the manufacturing process.

 

In any event, It was something fun to do when things were slow in the office.  My boss used to bring in other doctors who thought I was pulling a fast one.  One said, water has no taste so I think he was one of the non tasters because the tap water in that building was ghastly.  Had a horrible metallic taste which made my teeth cringe.  

 

 

 

[lindag]

I bow to your expertise, Andie.

What I notice in myself is that one day a food will taste wonderful and then the next day, not so much.

I don"t know how to account for that.

My DH, when he had cancer experienced this, but I don't know why I am.

[andiesenji]

12 minutes ago, lindag said:

I bow to your expertise, Andie.

What I notice in myself is that one day a food will taste wonderful and then the next day, not so much.

I don"t know how to account for that.

My DH, when he had cancer experienced this, but I don't know why I am.

I've had the same experience.  I can't stand things that are too sweet.  I get an odd sensation like puckering inside my cheeks and then copious saliva.  It can be embarrassing at times and I have to use a napkin quickly so I don't drool like a village idiot.  

I have had to make believe I was eating, using my fork around the edges - one such was a pecan pie that the hostess was so proud off.  

I gave the excuse of my diabetes being out of control to sooth her feelings.

 

I can handle sour and bitter flavors, if I have warning but some things are just beyond me.  Gooseberries, for instance. The flavor makes my skin crawl and I actually feel faint, the reaction is rapid and scary.  There are a couple of other fruits, wild and not widely available that have the same effect.  They grow wild in Kentucky and as a child, my cousins would devour them but I couldn't stand the taste.

[chromedome]

My late wife was a supertaster, exceptionally sensitive to bitter and tart flavors. Those are some of my favorite ingredients, so it was something of an adjustment.