Black Licorice Lovers: Unite!

Black licorice: awesome

Cilantro: soapy and horrible and to be avoided at all costs

Malor wrote:

You know, I just had a thought: I'm one who absolutely loathes black licorice, and have trouble imagining any human being wanting to eat the stuff. But I know I have a genetic taste quirk already, in that cilantro tastes soapy to me, not lemony. (I still kinda like it, from exposure, but it's not lemony in the least.)

So now I'm wondering if maybe some of us taste it differently? For me, it's this really powerful oily .... I want to say "stench", but that's not quite right. It is fragrant, it's just incredibly strong and vile. So I'll never voluntarily eat any, and I didn't even like using anise oil on my fishing lures, back when I still fished.

But a ton of you really love the stuff, so I can't help but wonder if it's another genetic thing, perhaps? I always wondered why people loved cilantro so much.

It'd be real interesting to hook a bunch of lovers and haters up to MRI machines to see what the differences were.

I'm also someone for whom cilantro tastes soapy, even a little bit of it can ruin a meal for me. I've always loved black licorice though, Good & Plenty's were my go to candy as a kid.

You’re all a bunch of freaks!

I’m in good company here.

Malor wrote:

You know, I just had a thought: I'm one who absolutely loathes black licorice, and have trouble imagining any human being wanting to eat the stuff. But I know I have a genetic taste quirk already, in that cilantro tastes soapy to me, not lemony. (I still kinda like it, from exposure, but it's not lemony in the least.)

THIS. I've never ever been able to describe what I taste when I eat cilantro but you described it perfectly! Now my wife won't think I'm crazy (well, not as crazy). You are my hero Malor.

Malor wrote:

You know, I just had a thought: I'm one who absolutely loathes black licorice, and have trouble imagining any human being wanting to eat the stuff. But I know I have a genetic taste quirk already, in that cilantro tastes soapy to me, not lemony. (I still kinda like it, from exposure, but it's not lemony in the least.)

So now I'm wondering if maybe some of us taste it differently? For me, it's this really powerful oily .... I want to say "stench", but that's not quite right. It is fragrant, it's just incredibly strong and vile. So I'll never voluntarily eat any, and I didn't even like using anise oil on my fishing lures, back when I still fished.

But a ton of you really love the stuff, so I can't help but wonder if it's another genetic thing, perhaps? I always wondered why people loved cilantro so much.

It'd be real interesting to hook a bunch of lovers and haters up to MRI machines to see what the differences were.

So my wife studied food science, and she told me that there's a lot of new research arguing that certain genetic markers cause some of us to taste food differently. The cilantro one has the most research behind it, but apparently there's a portion of the population that taste a strong acrid bitterness with tomatoes. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some people genetically predisposed to hating black licorice.

kuddles wrote:

I too would like to see more studies on objectively superior people who like black licorice and cilantro.

Lol.

Right on, Kuddles! Right on.

I got some friends to try the salted black licorice and surprisingly one who hates black licorice actually liked the salted black licorice, but hated the black licorice aftertaste. That was really shocking.

Sydhart wrote:
Malor wrote:

You know, I just had a thought: I'm one who absolutely loathes black licorice, and have trouble imagining any human being wanting to eat the stuff. But I know I have a genetic taste quirk already, in that cilantro tastes soapy to me, not lemony. (I still kinda like it, from exposure, but it's not lemony in the least.)

THIS. I've never ever been able to describe what I taste when I eat cilantro but you described it perfectly! Now my wife won't think I'm crazy (well, not as crazy). You are my hero Malor.

There's a thought that it might be a slight advantage: people with the soapy-cilantro mutation are, apparently, quite a bit more sensitive to the smell of bedbugs, which I guess maybe smell somewhat similar to us?

If you run into a bed that smells like cilantro, you may not want to sleep there.

I keep reporting this thread for being against standards of decency, but nothing happens??

(In all seriousness, you go black licorice lovers!!)

Black licorice is one of those treats that I know I can bring into the house and have all to myself. I've even become that friend who asks others before they try Jäger, Ouzo, etc. for the first time if they like black licorice at all.

Tried it once and thought it was one of the worse things I ever ate. I was thinking of trying some again but couldn't bring myself to do it.

You got it wrong, Baron! Black licorice tried you and found you not to taste. But seriously, it might be worth a shot, but I doubt you will, heh.

I do hope they pin it down to a gene variant, because I don't mind the cilantro thing now that I know why I don't like it the way so many people do. I'd be fine knowing that some people taste it differently.

What bugs me is the thought that people might experience what I do when eating black licorice, and then voluntarily go back for more. How could you do that?

Malor, this article may be of interest to you. It covers the mechanisms of some common taste/smell aversions, including a brief bit on cilantro and soapiness in 10.3. The cool stuff is in the intro, where they talk about how it all works.

From this, my problem is a common one, a TAS2R16 polymorphism, probably originally evolved to protect against cyanide-containing compounds. So at least it's useful lol.

TAS2R31 polymorphisms associate with differential bitterness of plant compounds like aristolochic acid and the sulfonyl amide sweeteners saccharin and acesulfame-K.

I might have that one. Saccharine has always had a weird, nasty undertaste that I didn't like much. But I don't think I have most of the others, and definitely not yours, as I like both tomatoes and beer just fine, thank you very much. (not, however, simultaneously.)

But I had a friend in my early 20s who strongly disliked beer, and opined that anything that you had to learn to like probably wasn't all that good for you. So I bet he had the bitterness-in-alcohol variant, or maybe it's just the bitterness from the hops coming through more strongly. To me, hops are slightly bitter, but it's a weak overall effect, and a strongly hoppy beer tastes fine.

Sadly, if there is a genetic component to tasting anise, this study doesn't explicitly mention it. But I'm going to just assume that it's true, because surely, surely you people can't all be insane.

Yeah, that TAS2R16 describes me perfectly. I can only drink beer if it's mixed with other flavors. I like ales a lot more, and Krieks and the like are actually fine with me. But it pushes me to sweet drinks, overall.