This is an article about beer with a small addendum about taste.

The author's analogy is based on a false premise of bitterness being universally repulsive as a flavour. Within the group of those with heightened tastebuds that can more accurately taste it, disdain for bitter is not uniform. I.e. I've a much keener than average sense of taste and smell. I hate beer because I dislike the basic essence, regardless of ingredient/flavour variation, which is due to my dislike of bitters as a flavour group. However, I know others who may be considered "supertasters" that like bitter flavours and go out of their way to consume certain foods of peculiar/distinct bitterness. Likewise, some "supertasters" prefer sourness as their top choices, etc. Edit: Similarly, "normal tasters" can like or dislike bitter (in varying combinations and intensities) but dislike doesn't automatically equate to stronger sense of taste/smell.

> Supertasters find beer incredibly bitter, [...] Suffice it to say, hard liquor is a no-no for supertasters. [...] unless they have been conditioned to drink beer, they more than likely will first and foremost consider both as just really bitter.

Huh. This might explain my extreme dislike for beer, and why I hate olives? For some time I've believed it may be a genetic mutation similar to why some people say cilantro tastes like soap.

My wife gave me the paper strip super taster test. She is a vile, vile woman. We also tried the counting method later. I recommend the strips so long as the subject doesn't know the expected reaction. It's easier to do. Being a supertaster is not a good thing necessarily. Earlier in life I avoided a lot of foods. It was only after I forced myself to put up with the bitterness and accept it'd always be there that I was able to branch out. One curious thing I've found is that I have a very strong like of certain smells. Some of them are smells others consider off putting or uncomfortable. Things like cardboard, paper, certain glues, heavy mechanical grease, certain rubber smells, skunk spray (yes the animal), the belts in bowling ball return chutes, etc all smell intoxicating. The only other person I found with a similar interest is also a super taster. I wonder if there is a correlation.

I don't think I'm a supertaster (for bitter) but it has to be said that a very large percentage of IPAs is just really bad, among inexperienced microbrewers there seems to be a race to max IBUs.

A simple way I was taught by a geneticist was to drink a Diet Coke. If it is sweet you are not a super-taster; if it is bitter you are.

For me all diet drinks taste very bitter like quinine or biting into a green potato.

I took a DNA test that told me I could taste bitter and only 40% of the population could taste it.

I never liked the bitter beers.

But I'm European and male, so I'm probably no supertaster

> But they more than likely will not be able to tell the difference between a Columbia hopped beer and a Cascade hopped beer.

If that's the bar for a nontaster then I'm a super-nontaster. I did a beer blind test once and even though I like beer I wrongly identified IPAs as lager etc. I don't think I got a single one correct.

Unless you like and have access to certain beers, the article won't tell you any such thing. Perhaps the book from which the piece is excerpted does.

My taste preferences have gone through a pretty radical change over the last three years or so. I never liked spicy foods before, but I started to use Sriracha which led me to search out other spicy foods. Now I feel very unmotivated to go to any restaurant that doesn't offer a spicy food dish.

I know this is off topic, but it is be interested in hearing if others have had similar experiences

The answer to the title's question is in the last paragraph of the article.

> What is an effective technique for examining how many papillae someone has in a given area of the tongue? All of them involve darkening it, and the most enjoyable is to swirl red wine in the mouth and over the tongue. If done correctly, you will be able to see little lumps of tissue on the tongue that are the papillae. Next, take a piece of three-hole notebook paper. The punched holes are about 6 or so millimeters in diameter, and a piece of paper torn off with one of these holes can be placed over the darkened tongue. Now simply count the number of papillae you see in the punched hole. If you have fewer than 4 papillae, you are more than likely a nontaster, whereas from 4 to 8 papillae would suggest that you are a taster. Anything over 8 would indicate that you are a supertaster or a super-supertaster.

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> Rob DeSalle is curator of entomology in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City

Nothing against the author, but when I see "Sackler," I think of that family's contribution to the opioid epidemic, which I learned from through HN.

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain | The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-tha...

Who is to blame for the opioid epidemic? - Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-is-to-blame-for-...

Who Profits from the Opioid Crisis? Meet the Secretive ...: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/19/who_profits_from_the...

I read the title at first as "How to tell if you are superstar"

Is this both sexist and racist?

> Supertasters are mostly women, and people of European ancestry are usually not supertasters.

Edit: The quoted statement does not offend me personally. I’m wondering:

1. When is it not sexist or racist (e.g. pointing out statistics about height, hair color, or skin tone)?

2. When is it definitely (I’m told) sexist or racist (e.g. James Damore asking about capability to write software)?

3. When is it in the middle (e.g. being a “super taster”)?

I did the technical way. I downloaded my genome from 23andme and looked for the (I don't know the terminology) 'things' with the letters that indicate I have the genes. Coupled with the physical evidence (I find beer and green vegetables sour to the point of being vile), turns out I'm in the club..

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