Taste is one of our most fascinating senses—shaping our cravings, memories, and even our culture. But there’s more to flavor than meets the tongue. From fruits that trick your taste buds to historical dishes with shocking ingredients, the world of taste is filled with strange and surprising facts. Did you know there’s a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding or that cats can’t taste sweetness at all? In this article, we explore 50 curious and quirky facts about taste that will make you look at food (and flavor) in a whole new way.
1 Red Delicious’ Flavor Decline
The once-tasty “Red Delicious” apple has significantly declined in quality. Supermarkets aimed to extend the apple’s shelf life, but the juiciest, best-tasting apples tend to spoil faster. As a result, selective breeding transformed the Red Delicious into a firmer and shinier, yet less flavorful, apple.
2. A Japanese brand has developed an innovative spoon that enhances the salty taste of food without adding salt. It works by transmitting a weak electric field that concentrates sodium ions on the tongue, amplifying the perception of saltiness.
3. Lead(II) acetate, known for its sweet taste, was historically used as an artificial sweetener. Romans would boil unfiltered grape juice in lead pots to create a syrup for sweetening wine and fruit. However, like many lead compounds, it is highly neurotoxic.
4. Pine Mouth is a condition that can result from eating pine nuts, leaving a lingering metallic taste in the mouth that may last for weeks.
5. After consuming the “miracle fruit” (Synsepalum dulcificum), sour foods taste sweet for about 15 to 30 minutes. This fruit releases a sweetening compound that temporarily alters taste perception, making lemons taste like candy and masking the sourness of other foods.
6 Monkeys Prefer Salty Potatoes
Monkeys in Japan learned to wash sweet potatoes in fresh water to clean them. Interestingly, they later switched to washing them in salt water, likely preferring the enhanced salty flavor over the plain taste.
7. Between 3% and 21% of the population possess a genetic variation in the olfactory receptor gene (OR6A2), which makes cilantro taste unpleasant. Those with this variant often describe cilantro’s flavor as reminiscent of soap, vomit, or even the odor of stinkbugs.
8. The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered by accident. A chemist who forgot to wash his hands after work noticed an “unspeakably sweet” taste during supper. Curious, he abandoned his meal and began tasting the beakers in his lab-fortunately, none contained anything toxic.
9. Major orange juice producers add chemical fragrances known as “flavor packs” to their products. These additives restore the signature taste lost during the pasteurization and deoxygenation processes.
10. Babies are born with about 30,000 taste buds, but as they grow into adulthood, the number decreases to around 10,000.
11 Toothpaste Alters Taste Perception
Sodium laureth sulfate, a common ingredient in toothpaste, suppresses the ability to taste sweetness. This is why drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth often results in a strange, unpleasant taste.
12. Since the 1990s, Brussels sprouts have been systematically bred to be less bitter and more flavorful, leading to their growing popularity in modern cuisine.
13. The fruit Monstera deliciosa can cause severe throat and skin irritation due to its oxalic acid content-an ingredient also found in rust cleaners-unless it is fully ripe. Once the green outer scales naturally fall off, it becomes safe to eat and offers a flavor blend of pineapple, banana, and coconut. Fittingly, its scientific name means “delicious monster.”
14. The giant tortoise went without a scientific name for over 300 years because sailors frequently ate the specimens on voyages back to Europe as they were apparently so delicious. Even Charles Darwin reportedly indulged, delaying the tortoise’s formal classification.
15. Scientists have identified a sixth basic taste-ammonium chloride-adding to the established tastes of salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. This taste can signal toxicity, but it’s also enjoyed in Nordic cultures as the key flavor in salty licorice.
16 Chocolate Pudding Fruit Discovery
There’s a unique fruit called Diospyros nigra, or black sapote, native to Central and South America. Often referred to as the “chocolate pudding fruit,” it offers a taste reminiscent of chocolate and sweet custard when fully ripe.
17. During the reign of King Louis XIV, the pairing of salt and pepper gained popularity. The king disliked dishes with overpowering flavors, and pepper was the only spice that complemented salt without overwhelming the palate.
18. Cotton candy grapes are a unique variety that taste remarkably like cotton candy. Created by horticulturist David Cain, these grapes resulted from breeding thousands of test tube plants-over 100,000 trials-before achieving the perfect flavor.
19. The historic Aldgate Pump in London, once celebrated for its “sparkling, agreeable” water, was later discovered to be contaminated. Minerals from decomposing flesh and bones in nearby cemeteries had leached into the water, leading to hundreds of deaths.
20. Apples originated in Kazakhstan, and wild varieties can offer flavors reminiscent of roses, strawberries, popcorn, anise, and more. Interestingly, 90% of modern apple varieties can be traced back to just two ancestral trees.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Cyanide’s Confirmed Taste Experience
The reason we know what cyanide tastes like is due to an Indian man, MP Prasad, who tragically committed suicide. In a hastily written note, he described the experience: “Doctors, potassium cyanide. I have tasted it. It burns the tongue and tastes acrid.” His words resolved a long-standing mystery.
22. We actually taste only about 20% of the salt on potato chips. In response, Lay’s developed a new salt shape that delivered the same salty flavor while using 25% less salt.
23. Contrary to the popular belief that “New Coke” was a marketing ploy, the real reason for its launch was that it consistently outperformed Pepsi and Coca-Cola Classic in blind taste tests. In fact, it performed so well that one bottling company even threatened to sue Coca-Cola if they didn’t release the new product.
24. In blind taste tests, Pepsi activated more dopamine receptors than Coca-Cola. However, once participants were told they were drinking Coke, it became the greater dopamine-producing beverage-even when they were deceived. This result was likely due to Coca-Cola’s powerful marketing influence.
25. Babies cannot taste salt until they are around three months old. However, once they develop the ability, they tend to show a clear preference for salty water.
RE: Fact #31 (Bacon-Flavored Seaweed Discovery) – I’ve heard this story forever! It’s gotta be a myth, or some experiment that’ll never happen.
RE: Fact #31 (Bacon-Flavored Seaweed Discovery) – it’s gotta? Why? Because you don’t believe it? You’re an idiot
It’s already out there, and it’s ridiculously pricey.
Whoa, don’t get your hopes up. I worked on it in college—my professor actually helped create it—and let me tell you, it tastes absolutely nothing like bacon. More like seaweed someone *tried* to make taste like bacon, or maybe those Beggin’ Strips. It’s pretty gross.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Things that taste *like* something else usually don’t taste as good as you’d hope. Take portobello mushrooms, for example – they don’t taste anything like steak, at least not any steak I’ve ever had.
RE: Fact #10 (Babies’ Taste Bud Decline) – Why’s my little one not into fancy scotch and cheese?
RE: Fact #50 (Cats’ Unique Meat Taste Perception) – Why the parentheses around “meat”? Just ’cause tissue has ATP doesn’t automatically make it meat. ATP is super common in muscle, sure, because muscles need a ton of it for movement. But every single cell in your body uses ATP, not just muscles.
Plants make ATP too.
RE: Fact #2 (Electric Spoon Enhances Saltiness) – It’s not quite like salt, though. It just makes things salty, it doesn’t really *enhance* the flavor. Salt’s the best because you add a little bit at a time, building flavor as you go. These spoons? They just make it salty.
Lots of people who love salty food aren’t actually into the flavor boost salt gives; they just crave salt. This is great for them.
RE: Fact #37 (Sriracha’s Recipe Controversy) – The taste of sriracha always changed a bit, depending on the chili peppers – different seasons, different peppers. They never really tried to make every batch taste exactly the same.
It’s a bummer, really. They had this awesome partnership for about 25 years. As sriracha got more popular, they’d tell the farmer how much they needed, and he’d hire more people and get more land. They treated him really well, never tried to screw him over. It was a true partnership.
RE: Fact #32 (Delicacy of Termite Queens) – So, what’s foie gras like, taste-wise?
RE: Fact #32 (Delicacy of Termite Queens) – look it up dumb ass
RE: Fact #31 (Bacon-Flavored Seaweed Discovery) – I’m betting it doesn’t actually taste like bacon.
I’ve tried a few vegan places, and wow, the things they can make with seitan and other fake meats is crazy good. Last week I had fake buffalo wings that tasted almost exactly like real ones – the texture was more like nuggets, but still really good. I’ve also had fake hamburger on nachos and fake gyro meat, both were spot on. These were all at vegan restaurants, though, not stuff you’d find in the freezer section.
Fake buffalo wings or gyros are easy, since the flavor comes mostly from the sauces and spices, not the meat itself. Good wing sauce can hide so-so “chicken,” but if you like simple baked chicken breast, using that same fake stuff will be a disaster.
Last year, I read about these researchers. Turns out, they were just regular scientists looking for a good seaweed to farm—no secret vegan agenda or anything. They were testing samples, and apparently it went something like, “Dude, that smells like bacon! Try it?” Then, “Dude, that tastes like bacon!” I’m totally making bacon shakes with this stuff as soon as I can.
Researchers probably don’t actually talk like that.
RE: Fact #7 (Cilantro’s Soap Taste Gene) – There are tons of foods like that. Bell peppers are one, but fewer people are sensitive to them.
For some people, bell peppers taste awful, like dirt.
I wonder if cilantro sensitivity varies across different groups, since Pho seems to be half cilantro – that’s why I love it!
RE: Fact #7 (Cilantro’s Soap Taste Gene) – there are not Tom’s of foods like that what the fuck are you talking about? They’re talking about a chemical that exists on humans and you’re saying that there are tons of food like that. You make no sense.
Wow, that explains why I hated pho! I always knew I didn’t like cilantro, but I didn’t realize it was in there. Duh!
Totally makes sense! My first Pho experience? I thought they forgot to rinse the bowl, but nope, it was just that awful cilantro.
RE: Fact #5 (Miracle Fruit Alters Flavors) – The sugar industry fought tooth and nail to ban it as a food additive, even though food scientists were exploring ways to use it as a sugar substitute.
RE: Fact #5 (Miracle Fruit Alters Flavors) – No one fought and no, they didn’t explore ways to use it as a sugar substitute. Quit making shit up.
Seriously though, Coca-Cola still uses real coca leaves in their recipe. Crazy how much power these big candy companies have!
RE: Fact #23 (The Truth About New Coke) – They stopped making the original recipe later that week. That was a huge problem. People weren’t bothered by New Coke itself, but they were furious they couldn’t get the old stuff anymore. They brought out Coke Classic eventually, but the damage was done—people boycotted New Coke just out of spite.
I can’t remember exactly when they switched, but I loved the new Coke, back when it was called “Coke II”.
Coke II: The great Coke-up
RE: Fact #34 (Judgment of Paris Wine Revolution) – After Uncle Carlos died, my siblings and I cleaned out his place. We found this old bottle of Stag’s Leap wine – from ’74 or so, the one that made Napa famous. We were totally blown away! Turns out, the old hermit had a secret life as a wine guy. So we opened it up… and the joke was on us. He’d used that fancy bottle to age his *own* homemade wine, which was, well, awful. Really, really bad.
RE: Fact #1 (Red Delicious’ Flavor Decline) – They’re practically fake.
RE: Fact #47 (Carbon Dioxide’s Fizzy Taste) – I can’t stand that bubbly feeling in carbonated drinks. In 37 years, I’ve probably only had six packs worth of soda total—only when I was desperate and super thirsty, or that one time in high school I bet a dollar on it. I hate beer for the same reason.
People gave me weird looks as a kid for not liking soda, and I still get them as an adult for not liking beer. Now I just say I hate the taste of carbon dioxide—it sounds a bit better, I guess.
Topomax can stop that fizzy taste.
I’m good with water.
RE: Fact #12 (Brussels Sprouts’ Taste Evolution) – So, it turns out there’s no such thing as a “Brussel sprout”—it’s always “Brussels sprout.” Always add the “s”!
RE: Fact #12 (Brussels Sprouts’ Taste Evolution) – no shit Sherlock
Actually, it’s “Canada geese,” not “Canadian geese.”
RE: Fact #38 (Algorithm-Crafted Orange Juice) – I just learned Coca-Cola makes Simply Orange juice!
Pepsi owns Tropicana, and Coke owns Minute Maid.
RE: Fact #17 (Salt and Pepper’s Royal Rise) – It was simpler than that. Louis XIV had a really sensitive stomach – most spices besides salt and pepper gave him indigestion. He was a fussy eater because a lot of food made him ill. Before his time, fancy meals were loaded with spices, especially among the wealthy since spices were pricey; it showed off their money. Louis XIV loved rich food, but hated strong seasonings.
RE: Fact #40 (Taste Recovery After Quitting Smoking) – Twelve years later, I’m still blown away by how much better my sense of smell is. It’s mostly noticing other people’s smoke, though. Before, I’d have laughed if someone said they could smell a smoker in a passing car – now I totally get it. I’ve smelled smokers from two blocks away!
RE: Fact #40 (Taste Recovery After Quitting Smoking) – you’re smelling the smoke mostly cause you still crave it. If you didn’t still, you wouldn’t as much.
RE: Fact #16 (Chocolate Pudding Fruit Discovery) – It doesn’t taste much like chocolate, it just looks like chocolate pudding.
Yeah, I agree. It was kind of bland, a bit too sweet, and really mushy.
It’s pretty bland, but the texture’s okay. Honestly, it’s way overrated—total marketing hype.
RE: Fact #25 (Babies’ Delayed Salt Perception) – Turns out, growing up on a low-salt diet makes you crave salty stuff later on.
RE: Fact #25 (Babies’ Delayed Salt Perception) – turns out, you don’t know shit. Just shut the fuck up
My folks only used salt substitutes when I was growing up—maybe that’s why I’m a salt fiend now?
Salt’s amazing, seriously—it’s gotta be in my top five reasons for enjoying life.
RE: Fact #28 (Chicken of the Woods Mushroom) – Heads up before you go crazy with this mushroom meat substitute: A few folks get a bit sick after eating it – nausea, vomiting, swollen lips, that sort of thing. So, start with a tiny bit to see how you react. Don’t gobble a whole bunch down right away! And steer clear of the ones growing on eucalyptus or conifers; those seem to cause more problems.
RE: Fact #28 (Chicken of the Woods Mushroom) – liar
That’s great advice for this mushroom and any others you find in the wild!
Some wild mushrooms are deadly, so that’s definitely not good advice for just any wild mushroom.
Helps you lose weight and get fuller lips.
RE: Fact #44 (Medieval Urine Tasting Diagnosis) – That diagnostic method was around way longer than the Middle Ages.
RE: Fact #16 (Chocolate Pudding Fruit Discovery) – Black sapote is awesome! I picked some up at Tropical Fruit World in Queensland. It’s a fantastic place with tons of different fruits. Mamey sapote’s pretty great too.
RE: Fact #22 (Lay’s Develops Salt Efficiency) – I’m a bigger fan of baked chips than regular ones—they’re way saltier.
I’m kinda into licking the spice off those chips. Is that weird?
Nope, it makes you human.
RE: Fact #41 (Why We Crave Spicy Foods) – Bye bye, depression.
RE: Fact #22 (Lay’s Develops Salt Efficiency) – That sounds like something my awful boss would demand.
“Seriously? I read somewhere that we only taste 20% of the salt on chips! Reshape the salt!”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Seriously! Profits are tanking because of this inefficient salt!”
Then my boss went to *his* boss and took all the credit for the money-saving salt.
RE: Fact #38 (Algorithm-Crafted Orange Juice) – Simply Orange juice and a pre-made flavor packet – good ol’ grandma’s recipe!
Grandma made OJ from concentrate, I’ll stick with the algorithm.
That Donald Duck orange juice? Total yuck fest. It was seriously sour.
My mom watered down the orange juice so much, I didn’t get to try real OJ until I was a teenager.
Let’s just call it Complicatedly Orange juice.
RE: Fact #45 (Robot Confirms Human Flesh Flavor) – This robot tasted human flesh and called it bacon! It’s a food-identifying robot, supposedly for fancy stuff like wine and cheese, but it thinks we’re bacon. One guy even tried it out and got called prosciutto. Seriously creepy.
RE: Fact #8 (Accidental Discovery of Saccharin) – It figures that a guy who’d go straight from work with chemicals all over him to dinner without washing up would also happily taste random chemicals in a lab.
Chemists did that a lot back in the day. It wasn’t such a big deal until pretty recently.
Doctors didn’t get into the habit of washing their hands until the 1850s.
I bet one little drop of most chemicals won’t kill you.
My chem teacher said old chemistry books often described chemicals by how they tasted. He smirked and added something about how nineteenth-century chemists didn’t live very long.
Handwashing’s only been a big deal for the last hundred years or so. Before that, doctors would be furious if you suggested they wash up before surgery – gentlemen didn’t have dirty hands, apparently.
Germs won, though.
Guys back then didn’t have dirty hands… or so they thought. They just rinsed the dirt off, and boom, clean! They never considered those teeny-tiny, invisible things might be the real killers. Microscopes weren’t even a thing yet.
RE: Fact #6 (Monkeys Prefer Salty Potatoes) – Even cooler, one young female monkey figured it out! And that same monkey’s been making tools and stuff—pretty amazing, right?
It’s even cooler how scientists watched this new thing spread through the group. Just like with people, the young ones picked it up first, then the younger moms taught their kids, and finally, the older guys joined in.
They kept doing it even after the station stopped giving them dirty sweet potatoes—now it’s just for flavor, apparently, and it’s been going on for ages.
I saw this cool little doc about it. Really interesting stuff. Turns out it was actually a Zefrank “True Facts” video, but it was still pretty informative.
RE: Fact #32 (Delicacy of Termite Queens) – These amazing bugs live almost as long as people! Think of all the stuff they’ve seen – and maybe they’re more than just moms. Maybe they’re the wisest creatures in the whole termite city, holding all the secrets, passing down knowledge from grandma to grandma for ages and ages.
Honestly, I really doubt anyone’s sharing termite secrets.
RE: Fact #34 (Judgment of Paris Wine Revolution) – Basically, drink whatever you enjoy—don’t let any stuck-up waiters tell you different.
I’m pretty much with you. The only thing is, I worked in a fancy restaurant and got to try some seriously pricey wines – some were amazing! My favorite was a Jordan Cabernet, it wasn’t the most expensive but still pretty high end. If you’ve got $45-$100 burning a hole in your pocket, definitely check it out. It’s seriously good stuff! 😉
Sip whatever you enjoy, or whatever makes your meal taste amazing – if you’re eating, that is. Try a real wine tasting with food pairings; you’ll be amazed at how certain wines and dishes bring out the best in each other. And you’ll also see how a wine you usually love can taste awful with the wrong food.
RE: Fact #50 (Cats’ Unique Meat Taste Perception) – Cats have super strong kidneys—they can even drink seawater and stay hydrated! They mostly make glucose in their kidneys, so it makes sense that they evolved to love meat.
RE: Fact #22 (Lay’s Develops Salt Efficiency) – Salt’s a rock, right? We only taste the outside bit before swallowing it. That’s why kosher salt’s so great – more surface area means more flavor with less salt. Cargill’s new Alberger salt, a hollow pyramid shape, takes that even further.
RE: Fact #50 (Cats’ Unique Meat Taste Perception) – My cat’s crazy for donuts and cookies!
RE: Fact #18 (Creation of Cotton Candy Grapes) – Seriously, they taste just like cotton candy—it’s crazy!
RE: Fact #21 (Cyanide’s Confirmed Taste Experience) – He mixed the cyanide with some booze, stirring it with the pen he’d used for the note.
That’s not very clean, is it? He could get sick.
He’ll be alright. The alcohol will clean the pen. Just regular rubbing alcohol, and that potassium cyanide burn will sting like crazy.
RE: Fact #29 (Gin and Tonic’s Origin) – Old-fashioned malaria tonic had way more quinine than the tonic water you find in stores today. So, don’t count on a gin and tonic to keep malaria away!
RE: Fact #36 (L-Glucose: Gold-Priced Sweetness) – My college roommate was a total chemistry whiz, now he’s got a PhD in environmental chemistry. He always said the first person to figure out how to cheaply make left-handed sugar would be a trillionaire.
But wait, there’s Olestra.
I’m totally with this guy. Olestra—remember that stuff? Food companies were sure it was the answer to everything, letting them sneak fat into junk food without the fat. But, whoops! It didn’t break down properly, and people who ate it became walking, talking, greasy messes.
This L-glucose is kinda similar: it tastes just like regular glucose, but our bodies can’t use it for energy because of a certain enzyme, hexokinase, which is the first step in breaking down sugar.
Only if they do it on their own. Otherwise, if it’s work-related – like for Bayer or whatever – they won’t get anything.
It’s like they’re on Bayer’s payroll, getting cash and labs to cook up these miracle cures they’d never manage solo.
Ha, who am I kidding, big pharma hates poor people!
Try planting some left-handed plants.
RE: Fact #5 (Miracle Fruit Alters Flavors) – I’ve tried it before. It’s strange how sweet some mustards are.
My dad, though, was really annoyed because it messed up the taste of his beer.
I was totally anti-sugar for ages. No sweetness, hardly any carbs. Then, weirdly, I started tasting sweetness in stuff that shouldn’t be sweet – like eggs! It’s crazy.
Eggs are so weird! They used to taste sweet to me, before I started eating more carbs.
Seriously, so much added sugar in everything here! I lived in Japan for a while, and when I got back, I couldn’t believe how sweet everything tasted.
RE: Fact #4 (Pine Nuts Cause Metallic Taste) – I grew up eating piñon in New Mexico, and later, at the restaurant where I worked, we made pesto with tons of shelled pine nuts. I’d sneak a few handfuls now and then—pure nostalgia. One time, I went overboard, and everything tasted like a super hoppy beer for days afterward.
Roasted piñon nuts? Man, I loved picking and roasting them when I was a kid. Great memories!
That’s awesome! I live in Colorado, in a piñon pine forest, and I’d love to learn how to harvest them. An old friend promised to teach me, but I always missed the window.
RE: Fact #14 (Tortoise Extinction by Taste) – Turns out, those giant tortoises weren’t classified for ages because they were just too tasty! Sailors ate them all before they even got back to Europe. Seriously, they were the best thing ever, according to tons of old accounts. People compared them to chicken, beef, and even butter, saying the tortoise was way better. One tortoise fed a bunch of guys, and the meat and fat were super easy to digest, no matter how much you ate. The oil from their fat was great medicine and tasted amazing too. And don’t even get me started on the liver, marrow, and eggs – the best anyone ever had! Even though some sailors thought they were ugly at first, one bite changed their minds. They were lifesavers for sailors, too. They could live for months without food or water, so they were basically a walking pantry. Plus, they stored tons of water, so a single tortoise was like a water fountain on the high seas. In fact, big-time whaling back in the 1800s depended on these tortoises to keep ships out at sea for weeks!
This comment is totally Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-esque, maybe because I’m reading it right now.
RE: Fact #44 (Medieval Urine Tasting Diagnosis) – I heard somewhere that you can apparently ferment diabetic urine into whiskey. I’m not sure if it’s true though, I never looked into it!
RE: Fact #41 (Why We Crave Spicy Foods) – Sweating means I’m happy.
Welcome to the Middle East!
Spicy food makes you sweat, and that actually cools you down.
Finding good spicy food is tough out here in the Midwest.
RE: Fact #40 (Taste Recovery After Quitting Smoking) – Seven years smoke-free! Biggest difference? I don’t get winded going upstairs anymore.
RE: Fact #25 (Babies’ Delayed Salt Perception) – It’s got everything babies love.
RE: Fact #48 (Banana Candy’s Lost Flavor) – That’s a misconception. Isoamyl acetate, the main banana scent, was found nearly a century ago, and it became the standard banana flavor in candy. But a ton of work in flavor science means we can now make super realistic banana flavors, even matching different kinds of bananas. I’ve tasted both Cavendish and Gros Michel – they’re pretty similar, though Gros Michel is sweeter and stronger. They’re still grown in some places; I had an amazing one from St. Lucia. I keep seeing this wrong idea on factrepublic and setting the record straight. If a flavor tastes fake, it’s probably because of this, or just because they used a cheap flavor. I’m a flavor chemist, so I know what I’m talking about.
RE: Fact #42 (Beets and Rain’s Shared Scent) – Is that petrichor?
Petrichor is what we call that smell, and geosmin’s probably a big part of it.
Anyone here learn that word from Doctor Who?
RE: Fact #42 (Beets and Rain’s Shared Scent) – That smell is awesome. Back when I was working, I really wanted to find a vape juice that smelled like petrichor or geosmin.
RE: Fact #24 (Coca-Cola’s Marketing Taste Advantage) – Coke and Pepsi taste totally different.
Pepsi’s super sweet, but Coke has a little kick to it, kind of dry at the end.
Tons of people can’t tell the difference after just one sip.
Yeah, people are strange.
I bet those are the same people who didn’t realize Tarkin was computer-generated.
RE: Fact #3 (Toxic Sweetener of Ancient Rome) – At work, we’ve got a list of approved sweeteners for new products, and lead acetate’s the cheapest. If anyone tries to use it without checking, we send them for extra training.
RE: Fact #30 (Supertasters Experience Flavor Intensely) – Most people fall into one of three taste groups: nontasters, tasters, and supertasters—about 25%, 50%, and 25% respectively.
Supertasters have a pretty intense experience with food and drink, often the opposite of what you’d expect. They taste everything way more strongly than others.
For a supertaster, beer can be seriously bitter. They’ll usually steer clear of IPAs and even a lot of lagers.
RE: Fact #1 (Red Delicious’ Flavor Decline) – Cosmic Crisp apples taste great and last longer. They’re a bit pricier, but totally worth it.
Cosmic Crisp apples are the best—seriously, top-tier!
RE: Fact #19 (Deadly Secrets of Aldgate Pump) – London’s been around for over 2000 years, so finding a spot without any dead people buried underneath would be pretty tough.
Check out that nice park? Lots of dead bodies.
That phone booth? Dead bodies.
That pet shop? Yeah, tons of dead bodies!
RE: Fact #2 (Electric Spoon Enhances Saltiness) – I’ll wait for the price to drop. It’s more than $100.
It really depends on how long it lasts. If it’s a one-time buy that’ll last for ages, then it’s pretty good.
That’s pretty good for the long run, health-wise and cost-wise.
Salt’s super cheap.
RE: Fact #11 (Toothpaste Alters Taste Perception) – That SLS stuff can give you mouth sores, so if you get them a lot, take a look at what’s in your toothpaste.
These days, everyone’s glued to their phones, so who bothers checking toothpaste ingredients on the loo?
Let’s build a toilet app! Imagine, reading those tiny ingredient lists while you’re, you know, doing your business.
Ever struggle to decipher shampoo ingredients before finishing up? Now you can keep reading those labels from the toilet, at work, school – even in your car!
Yep! I ditched SLS toothpaste six years ago, and my canker sores vanished. I’m always telling people about it now.
Me too! I had mouth ulcers forever until I switched to a toothpaste without SLS, and they’ve been gone ever since.
Me too! It feels a little strange checking toothpaste ingredients, but it’s totally worth it.
RE: Fact #34 (Judgment of Paris Wine Revolution) – French judges totally didn’t buy it, so they ran the same contest ten years later with the same wines. They figured their wines would be way better after aging, especially compared to those cheap Napa ones. But nope, the American wines won again in ’86—and by a bigger margin!
Napa Valley wines were actually pretty great, but the French couldn’t swallow their pride about it.
You should check out their reactions to Wisconsin and Oregon cheese.
RE: Fact #35 (DMSO: Tasting Through Touch) – My dad had some leftover from his ankle injury, so I’m gonna give it a shot! And whenever I hear about DMSO, I’m reminded of that Gloria Ramirez story – they think DMSO caused crystals to form in her blood, which made others sick.
RE: Fact #43 (Lemon Neutralizes Fishy Smell) – It’s kinda funny, adding acid actually gives these compounds a positive charge, making them less volatile. Probably only a biochemist would get that joke though.
RE: Fact #19 (Deadly Secrets of Aldgate Pump) – Those deaths happened before they moved the pump and switched to London’s water supply in 1876.
RE: Fact #23 (The Truth About New Coke) – A Coke exec, when asked if the New Coke mess was some clever long game to boost sales, said they weren’t *that* brilliant, and they weren’t *that* dumb either.
RE: Fact #10 (Babies’ Taste Bud Decline) – Everyone eventually tries Marmite, and bam! Twenty thousand taste buds vanish in one go – it’s like swallowing black, gooey tar.
Lots of us probably burned our mouths eating too fast when we were kids. Maybe even got freezer burn too!
RE: Fact #20 (Kazakhstan Origins of Apples) – The fact is a bit off. Those flavors are just what they taste like, not only found in Kazakhstani wild apples. It’s not like those Jelly Belly beans—you won’t get a single, strong flavor like popcorn.
Pretty much any food or drink can have flavor descriptions, and apples are the same.
What’s a tasting note?
He probably just means a hint of strawberry flavor—like a regular sweet and sour apple, but with a little strawberry taste mixed in, not a whole strawberry apple.
Some people get pretentious tasting wine, going on about elderberry this and rare oak that, even mentioning the sweat of a virgin WoW player… that’s what tasting notes are.
Lots of foods and drinks share the same taste compounds. Lemons and lemongrass, for instance, have some of the same stuff, which is why lemongrass even has “lemon” in its name! But there are tons of other less obvious examples, like chocolate and porter beer, raspberries and wine, or citrus and whiskey.
“Tasting notes” are just ways of saying that something tastes like something else. When a wine snob says a wine has “notes of nutmeg and birch bark,” they don’t mean it actually *has* nutmeg and birch bark in it—just that it tastes similar.
Basically, similar tastes mean similar stuff.
RE: Fact #13 (Monstera’s Dangerous Deliciousness) – I’ll skip the wait and grab some rust cleaner at Home Depot, then I’m off to Jamba Juice.
RE: Fact #10 (Babies’ Taste Bud Decline) – Two-year-old food critic declares adults have zero taste buds—then throws his banana at the wall.
RE: Fact #27 (Prohibition’s Influence on Cocktails) – Why would you hide a dead rat? That stuff’s delicious.
RE: Fact #41 (Why We Crave Spicy Foods) – Gotta do a quick shot of chili powder, be right back.
RE: Fact #28 (Chicken of the Woods Mushroom) – Ever hear what they call bats? Cave chickens.
RE: Fact #4 (Pine Nuts Cause Metallic Taste) – So, I’m hearing that it’s mostly because manufacturers are using nuts from other places, especially China. Pine nuts blew up in popularity, but those trees take forever to grow, so they can’t just suddenly make tons more.
RE: Fact #40 (Taste Recovery After Quitting Smoking) – You’ll feel better super fast. Quitting smoking? Studies show you’ll be way less likely to get sick within a day!
RE: Fact #49 (Logan Bar’s Bland Purpose) – Dwarf bread, basically.
Real Dwarf bread? It’s gotta be schlepped around, get soaked and dried out, sat on, and checked on daily.
Man, that’s a blast from the past! A loaf of Mom’s dwarf bread and a knife to cut it – I’d be one happy dwarf.
RE: Fact #17 (Salt and Pepper’s Royal Rise) – Man, I miss when overly spicy food was considered, like, totally evil and scandalous. This morning, I’m seriously fighting the urge to, uh, you know, because my wife put pepper on my eggs.
Grab some cornflakes and chill out.
RE: Fact #17 (Salt and Pepper’s Royal Rise) – Crazy, huh? So much of what we do is because of one random thing someone did ages ago. Like, we say “hello” thanks to Thomas Edison, and sandwiches are all John Montagu’s fault.
Guys’ fancy suits still leave the bottom button undone—it’s all because King Edward VII was a bit chubby and couldn’t button his vest.
RE: Fact #24 (Coca-Cola’s Marketing Taste Advantage) – This is a bit misleading. Pepsi usually wins quick taste tests because it’s sweeter upfront. But when people drink a whole glass, Coke comes out on top. When Pepsi started losing, they claimed everyone secretly preferred Pepsi, but Coke’s ads had tricked them.
Coke Whiskey tastes way better when you drink a whole cup.
Super sugary.
I much prefer Liquid Diabetes on ice.
RE: Fact #6 (Monkeys Prefer Salty Potatoes) – Now, let’s show them the gravy.
RE: Fact #15 (Discovery of Sixth Taste) – I expected blood, ’cause I didn’t see “pennies” on the flavor list.
RE: Fact #49 (Logan Bar’s Bland Purpose) – Eating a chocolate bar that’s supposed to not melt in the desert? That sounds ridiculously tough.
Further down, it mentions soldiers sometimes shaved bits off their chocolate rations because it was too tough to bite into.
RE: Fact #35 (DMSO: Tasting Through Touch) – Man, I’ve got DMSO in the lab and it’s seriously tempting.
RE: Fact #29 (Gin and Tonic’s Origin) – The soldiers wouldn’t touch that awful stuff, so they added their daily gin to it. Basically, they got their gin, but only if they drank it with the yucky medicine.
It probably had less sugar, too.
RE: Fact #33 (Sweetness More Addictive Than Cocaine) – Rats would totally pick cocaine over sugar if they went out partying.
It’s probably something like that, a social thing, right? We’ve got all these fancy foods, so we’re used to great tastes. Cocaine is a powerful drug, but rats, with their simpler diets, mostly just care about staying safe, eating, mating, and finding shelter. It’s kind of similar for humans, but you get what I mean.
Sugar’s more tempting, and we think cocaine’s more addictive because nobody thinks they’re hooked on sugar—we eat it all the time! Even a coke addict probably eats more sugar than they do coke.
It’s also easier to say no to sugar because there’s always more around. You can always have some later.
RE: Fact #49 (Logan Bar’s Bland Purpose) – Boiled potatoes are yummy. My family’s Polish, so maybe that’s why.
My family’s Irish, and we’re right there with you.
I get it, my folks are struggling.
RE: Fact #13 (Monstera’s Dangerous Deliciousness) – Ripe pineapples make great piña coladas. Unripe pineapples? Not so much.
RE: Fact #33 (Sweetness More Addictive Than Cocaine) – I reckon there’s a difference between something being addictive and something you just really like.
Wow, eating’s more addictive than cocaine! Apparently, people going without cocaine just get withdrawal symptoms, but people who stop eating… they die!
RE: Fact #4 (Pine Nuts Cause Metallic Taste) – I ate some pine nuts once, and they were terrible. I was totally confused for a week, thinking something was seriously wrong with me, until I googled “metallic taste” and figured it out.