My Dragons
Taste Buds
Over on Making Light (a lot of my conversations seem to start that way these days), they're having a discussion of alcoholic drinks which has veered into a discussion of supertasters --those being people who can taste stuff others can't. There's a brief Wikipedia article on the subject (see link above) and though WP's not great on science this is a subject not likely to cause political controversy, and copiously footnoted, so it's probably OK. And the list of foods supertasters don't like is rather enlightening.
I dislike alcohol and can always taste it in any concentration sufficient to get one drunk before being unable to drink anymore because one's stomach is full; this is the case even when the person making the drink swears "you can't taste it". As a side effect, I've never been more drunk than "mildly buzzed", and that was because I deliberately set out to get drunk to see what it was like, ignoring the unpleasantness of the alcohol.
I don't like cabbage (though sauerkraut is OK), kale or spinach; I know I've had Brussels sprouts but I don't remember my reaction to them. Coffee I dislike specifically because it's bitter--if it tasted like it smells, I'd be all over it. Tonic water is so bitter as to be nearly gag-inducing. I don't like capsacin; hot foods get unpalatable quickly even if the first bite or two is OK.
I enjoy grapefruit, though it is bitter, and am neutral to green tea; my major exposure to soy is tofu, which I don't like for reasons other than its flavor per se: tofu is very slimy. And I love olives, because they're salty.
One more thing they don't list: I am the designated soft drink tester whenever we suspect Liam's gotten slipped a regular soda by accident; he's been drinking diet pop for so long he can't taste the artificial sweetener, but I can.
All of which leads me to suspect I may be a supertaster. The WP article says that it's normal human variation, like hair or eye color, and therefore "does not require treatment", which strikes me as funny as it never would have occurred to me to think it might. But it does explain why I can't stand coffee...