I’ve been wondering for a while now if I might have that gene or whether Cilantro is just a herb i dislike. I can stomach dishes with cilantro in them, but it just stings through everything. No matter how little was put in, it tastes to me like somebody over-cilantro’d the dish. I’ve never eaten anything where I thought “Mmmh, yes, there’s a subtle hint of cilantro” - it’s always “Oh, there’s the cilantro, and it’s just too strong”.
But whenever I read about this online, people say that it tastes like soap. It’s been a couple of years since I was toddler enough to just put soap in my mouth. But in my mind, the taste of soap is mostly bitter, with an overwhelming tropical/fruity/citrussy flavor of whatever the producers decided to make the soap smell like. I also imagine it having a really unpleasant texture/mouthfeel. I have no urge to try eating soap, just so I can compare it with the taste of a herb. And I assume that most people with the Cilantro-gene also haven’t made an actual taste-comparison. So hence my question: In what way does anything - but cilantro in particular - taste like soap?
It doesn’t taste soapy to me, but more like bug spray that I accidentally got in my mouth as a kid. Weirdly chemically
For me, it tastes like a stink bug had farted in my generel direction. same scent, not that intense.
I do think there’s something strange with how you taste it. My partner and I both love cilantro and will eat it in abundance, no issue.
Fwiw, I have a weird taste sensitivity to all seafood. I can sense the tiniest amount of seafood in a dish because it ruins the whole thing. I’ve learned that most people don’t taste seafood like that, so something like fish oil in kimchi doesn’t taste like you licked a room temperature anchovy.
Eating a piece of cilantro while I type this. To me, it starts with a fresh but subtle flavor that then intensifies until it feels like looking directly at a light, then it dies down with the aftertaste of grass clippings
I think your reaction to seafood is normal. It does contaminate everything. I love seafood but drop one shrimp in an ocean of soup and it’s suddenly shrimp soup
Palmolive. That’s what it tasted like to me when I went looking for it.
I once ate a handful of cilantro to see if I could taste it, and I could, a little bit. Then I swore not to do that again because normally, I love cilantro.
It tastes like drinking water from a glass that has been cleaned with dish soap but not rinsed properly and you can taste the residue and distinct smell/taste of soap. I used to have this response as a child but later as an adult the taste completely changed and now I can taste its real flavour.
I had no idea it could change over time, that’s really cool. Makes me wonder what other genetic factors can change like that.
I couldn’t eat something that had come near cilantro until I was in my 20s. But I was intentional about it. I love Mexican food, but really couldn’t eat it at restaurants because of this so I decided I was going to try an experiment.
I would make a small amount of food at home with a little bit of cilantro and as I cut it up I would inhale deeply and tell myself out loud “this smells delicious. I love this.”
Then I would eat the prepared food and do the same. I did this once a week or so for a few months and eventually the soap taste disappeared. It tastes like delightful fresh herbs now.
See, yes. This is what adults do.
Being grown and refusing to eat something that millions of humans eat every day is, frankly, embarrassing. When I meet any otherwise neurotypical picky eater over the age of 13, all I can think of is, “Christ, grow the fuck up.”
When I met am otherwise neurological adult who gets hung up on what others choose to do with their free will, all I can think is “grow the fuck up”
I’ve got a cousin who gets upset about what I choose to eat. I don’t even understand where someone like that is coming from.
Cater to them in a family of otherwise normal eaters, and get back to us about how understanding you are.
Having allergic reactions is one thing; being fussy is another thing entirely.
It’s probably less about what you choose to eat and more about the fact that picky eaters are, in a larger sense (and without exception) some combination of childish, incurious, self-absorbed, inflexible, and boring.
A lot. Genes have a weird ability to activate or deactivate, or simply have a different effect, based on environmental factors.
Look up “Epigenetics”.
Thanks for the new rabbit hole! :D
Your taste buds also dull over time, so strong flavors get weaker.
many tastes change over time. certain foods are really sharp to children in unpleasant ways, but to an adult they are more mellow and nuanced.
Right, I know this from experience. I was talking about the genes thing which I have been informed is Epigenetics (thanks Crankenstein!)
I experience the soap taste, not with cilantro but with certain beers. There’s a local brewery I go to that makes a certain beer that tastes like soap for me, like the smell(?) / aftertaste of a wax candle. It happens every time. And when I order a different beer, it’s gone. It’s not the glass. Drives me crazy not knowing what the heck it is lol. A genetic quirk I guess. Always a light colored beer, never dark. My partner thinks it’s some of the yeast notes.
Likely some variety of hops they use in that beer. Cilantro apprently share some flavor compounds with hops.
I have a really weird one where shandy (beer mixed with lemonade) smells like rubber to me. Like when you rub a balloon really hard.
You guys can smell balloons being rubbed, right? 😅
My one that I share with my mom is that jalapeños taste like mold. I don’t get it with other kinds of peppers, and vinegar will mask it so picked jalapeño or hot sauces with it are usually okay. But it’s always just a bit there.
Mosaic hops do something similar for me. I nearly vomit any time I have a beer brewed with them, so not really trying many new IPAs these days unless they got the hops listed.
The flavor to your immature taste buds wasn’t real?
There is the thing as it exists and then the thing as I perceive it. I’d say I’m tasting the more accurate version of it today but it probably is still debatable.
What something tastes like is part of your perception of it though. It’s an interaction that is based as much on the tongue doing the tasting as the substance being tasted.
I don’t think either way you tasted it was more “real” or “accurate”, but could be closer to what the majority of people experience.
I’ve always thought soap was the wrong comparison, but I definitely have the gene that makes it awful.
Cilantro is loaded with acetyl groups, and sensitivity to those is what defines the taste. Soap is also full of acetyls, but different ones I guess? What hits much closer to target is stink bugs. The gunk they secrete to make their distinctive stink has many of the same acetyl groups as cilantro.
With our sense of smell tied so strongly to our sense of taste, you kind of know what something tastes like just from getting a whiff, with a few exceptions (looking at you, vanilla extract… you fucking liar).
Anyway, a more accurate comparison would be that cilantro tastes like stink bugs. Or specifically, cilantro tastes like the smell of sink bugs.
I can stomach dishes with cilantro in them, but it just stings through everything. No matter how little was put in, it tastes to me like somebody over-cilantro’d the dish.
Same. The taste of cilantro ranges from bad to intolerable. If there’s just a tiny bit of it in there, it tastes only mildly bad; scale it up and the dish is ruined in a hurry.
Pro tip:
You’ve probably already noticed that “please no cilantro” will fall on deaf ears when placing an order at most restaurants. “I have an allergy to cilantro - please make sure there’s none in my food.” will get you MUCH better results.
If faced with skepticism, give them the spiel about acetyl groups and that those are the source of the allergy. Your symptoms are itchy sensation on the tongue, soreness on the roof of your mouth, constriction/wheezing in your throat, and nausea that kicks in later.
You’ll be amazed how rarely they ‘forget’ not to defile your meal with that rancid shit.
Pro tip: You’ve probably already noticed that “please no cilantro” will fall on deaf ears when placing an order at most restaurants. “I have an allergy to cilantro - please make sure there’s none in my food.” will get you MUCH better results.
Please don’t do this.
It makes servers and cooks feel like customers are lying to them when someone tells them they have an allergy. So when some little kid with a life-threatening nut allergy comes in, they might not get taken seriously.
The other issue is that with an allergy (vs a food preference) many kitchens are required to use completely different pots and pans and utensils, gumming up the line, because even a speck of an allergen can cause serious harm.
I can’t stand cilantro either and I’m agreeing that it sucks when restaurants ignore you and should send the food back each time. Just please don’t make it harder for people with life-threatening allergies.
It makes servers and cooks feel like customers are lying to them when someone tells them they have an allergy.
Then they shouldn’t ignore customers to begin with
Reminds me of my own issue with parmesan cheese in things; I taste a vomit smell and just a little will make it bad to intolerable. I followed a recipe that added a sprinkle to a large pot of soup and to be the whole thing just tasted like vomit soup. My wife didn’t notice at all. I think I’m sensitive to butyric acid, the shared factor between the two.
I’ll use your stink bug example in the future when cilantro comes up, though, especially since so many people I know love cilantro and can’t imagine (and to be fair it’s very good without said gene, lol)
parmesan tastes like delicious cheesy vomit
You must hate Hershey’s chocolate
Whoa! Is that why I hate Hershey’s? I don’t mind their dark but the milk one is awful lol
They use a lot of similar compounds to those found in vomit
When I was younger and didn’t know what cilantro was, I couldn’t understand why no one in my family agreed with me that stink bugs smelled like, “some kind of herb.”
When I finally figured out what cilantro was and why I didn’t like it, I went digging into stink bug stink and realized precisely why.
It doesn’t always taste like soap to me. But when it does, it literally tastes like the lather/residue from unscented bar soap. Like if you wash your hands but don’t thoroughly rinse them, then eat finger food. It’s a basic (as opposed to acidic) flavor, that really doesn’t taste like anything other than soap.
Only partially related, why does no one talk about what it tastes like when you don’t have the gene? Nobody told me it’s like spicy mint! I was expecting something mild like basil or something. But no, it’s overpowering.
I had the chance to try it for the first time a few months ago when I discovered a local restaurant sells Bahi Mi with cilantro and pickled carrots. Its delicious, but I was not expecting that flavor.
To my taste, it’s extremely fresh and vegetal. Kind of in a similar way to how lime, cucumber, or jalapeno are.
I’m a bit puzzled by both the spicy and mint comparisons you make.
I think lime, cucumber and jalapeño is a pretty good descriptor. Lime and cucumber just taste a lot like mint to me.
Fresh is also a good description. It makes my mouth feel clean just like mint does.
I think, people are largely not aware that genetic differences can affect the taste so much, so they just assume that everyone experiences the same taste, just with different preferences for different tastes.
But yeah, when I learned that cumin is another candidate for genetic differences in taste perception, I also had to ask a friend to describe the taste, because I’ve never seen the taste described anywhere. For me, it just tastes extremely hollow, while it’s apparently a rather rich taste for other folks…
The taste of a spice like cumin will be highly dependent on the age of the seed and if it is ground or not. Ground spices oxidize quickly and lose a lot of volatile compounds which contribute to their depth. To taste cumin properly, it is best to lightly toast whole cumin seeds and then crush/ grind them. The difference between the store bought ground cumin is night and day.
I’m not saying, that the taste isn’t strong enough for me. I’m saying that it actively adds a taste, which I can best describe as “hollow”. Falafel or hummus with cumin tastes worse to me than without…
Huh, interesting!
I hate cilantro and other things like horseradish and wasabi but like I love jalepeno and popeye spicy chicken so its not just a heat thing. Anyway for me cilantro tastes like dirt and horseradish/wasabi just has this nasty taste. Funny thing is cilantro has become so popular I have developed a kind of resistance to it. Like I can eat something with cilantro but it will bring it down. I used to take one bite of something with cilantro and had to find something to get the taste out of my mouth. A really funny thing was I sepent a massive amount of time thinking I hated avocado because I only incountered it in guacomole which as far as I can tell always has cilantro. Man when I had just some avocado on something I was like. holy fuckin trump, this is awesome.
It’s been a couple of years since I was toddler enough to just put soap in my mouth.
I can’t believe how literate OP is for only being 4 years old!
This is why I only have cilantro flavoured soap
That would be a great scam. Just offer unparfumed soap and some of your customers will never know.
I mean, those customers would also be entirely unlikely to want anything with cilantro in it, but you know, I’m sure there’s someone you could fool.
I can’t answer your question, because it doesn’t taste like soap to me either. Just as you described, it tastes overwhelmingly strong and unpleasant to me, so I assume I have the gene. I do think sometimes it tastes appropriate buried in amongst other flavors though.
I mean, there can be multiple different gene variations. I have the soap thing and I can’t remember tasting anything other than soap, although admittedly I haven’t tried cilantro in isolation or in enough dishes to be able to tell for sure.
I equate it more to a strong perfume than soap. When I eat cilantro it just fills the back of my nose with that overwhelming floral perfume smell (feel?).
Minute food does a good job explaining it, IMO. https://youtu.be/RZtPynXsFas
To me, it’s not exactly soap but it’s damn close. Like 90% of soap. Idk what else to tell you, it just does.
On a related note, I love olive oil but hate olives, because anytime a dish has olives at all, it tastes like there’s too many olives. It’s like the olive takes away the taste from the other ingredients and replaces everything with olive taste.
Cilantro tastes fine to me though.
Hmm, is that olive thing not a universal experience? I always figure the cooks are just too lazy to cut up the olives, which would help a lot.
Well, and what also helps is to combine the olives with lots of different veggies. Don’t just serve an olive-tomato salad, but rather throw in cucumber, bell pepper and garlic as well, along with maybe some beans, a bit of rosemary and thyme.
I guess, the cooks have a hearty salad like that in mind, but then start bargaining whether they could leave out one or two veggies.
And then they never figure out that, no, they cannot. You need a rich base flavour to compete with the olives, but then you want it to be light to balance out how heavy the olives are. Well, and a surefire way to get rich+light is just lots of different veggies.
