Psychopaths really like bitter food

November 22, 2015 5:20 PM

"The results suggest that how much people like bitter-tasting foods and drinks is stably tied to how dark their personality is.”
posted by Anonymous (139 comments total)

Where was the original research actually published? Because the blog post links to the Daily Fail as its source.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:26 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

Almost 1000 people, huh?
posted by heyitsgogi at 5:28 PM on November 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Nope, all the results suggest is that how much people like bitter-tasting food and drinks is stably tied to how dark they think of themselves as (duh).
posted by nzero at 5:29 PM on November 22, 2015 [11 favorites]

The researchers were at a bit of a loss as to why the weird correlation between bitter foods and psychopathic personalities exists. They did speculate, however, and that's what makes journalism go.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:31 PM on November 22, 2015 [45 favorites]

Well, anyone who enjoys radishes is clearly evil, I mean it just makes sense, you know?
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:31 PM on November 22, 2015 [22 favorites]

Did they give people coffee while they were taking the tests? Because having a personality test between me and my coffee counts as "enough provocation" in my book.

Also, what if I like pickled radishes more than non-pickled radishes? Sour and bitter? What then?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:32 PM on November 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Where was the original research actually published? Because the blog post links to the Daily Fail as its source.

It mentions an author name and a publication, which matches this paper: Individual differences in bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits by Sagioglou and Greitemeyer.
posted by effbot at 5:33 PM on November 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

oh shit I can't tell anyone I like bitter foods anymore. they'll think I'm an emotionless robot.

maybe I am an emotionless robot ...
posted by thebotanyofsouls at 5:33 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm cracking up, because I am sorted into Slytherin and love eating raw cherry radishes. I am obviously the incarnation of dark, bitter evil. Fetch me my cold brew, no cream or sugar! /eats seashell chocolates/
posted by yueliang at 5:34 PM on November 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

i like radishes
posted by brambleboy at 5:34 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

Where was the original research actually published?

It appears to be Individual differences in bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits by Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer in Appetite, 2015 Sep 30 (doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.09.031).

Full text appears to be held hostage by Elsevier, alas.
posted by metaquarry at 5:34 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh hells yeah, pickled radishes. And if I'm really the psychopath out of everyone I know, that is seriously hilarious. Then again, I am a lawyer...
posted by susiswimmer at 5:35 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ich will Radieschen!, the fuhrer was often heard to shout.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:35 PM on November 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”

--Stephen Crane
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:36 PM on November 22, 2015 [102 favorites]

As a kid, I used to eat baking chocolate.

...I'll see myself out
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:36 PM on November 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

Just because I'm drinking a Double IPA doesn't mean I'm a monster.

The fact I'm using a pilsner glass does.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:36 PM on November 22, 2015 [71 favorites]

I hate bitter food. I assume that means I shit rainbows full of delight.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:36 PM on November 22, 2015 [42 favorites]

That must mean that every grocery store is a purveyor of evil. Why else would they display radishes for sale, at 3/.99?
posted by yueliang at 5:37 PM on November 22, 2015

A PDF of the accepted manuscript is available.
posted by metaquarry at 5:37 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

*gnaws baker's chocolate*
posted by jonmc at 5:37 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

The universe eats baker's chocolate and radishes for breakfast.
posted by yueliang at 5:38 PM on November 22, 2015 [10 favorites]

The authors are currently working on a follow-up paper in which they show evidence that a bit of better butter may make a sociopath better.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:38 PM on November 22, 2015 [17 favorites]

My coffee comes without milk or sugar, my chocolate comes as dark as I can find, my beer is a dark IPA. I like it when my tea is bitter too.

I'm with susiswimmer-- either I've met a bunch of people who subsist on Denatonium, or I find these results confusing.

On the other hand I did just make sugar cookies at 2:30 am, so who knows. And I don't recall ever having a pickled radish.
posted by nat at 5:41 PM on November 22, 2015

i just dumped a quarter cup of chocolate syrup into my white russian because it wasn't sweet enough. i'm like if abraham lincoln and santa claus had a baby together.
posted by mittens at 5:41 PM on November 22, 2015 [12 favorites]

Vegans tell us they have deep compassion for living things, and yet they eat kale and broccoli rabe.
posted by mccarty.tim at 5:46 PM on November 22, 2015 [21 favorites]

Vegans

hm.... many of their recipes are labeled as guilt-free. have they been trying to tell us something all these years?
posted by mittens at 5:49 PM on November 22, 2015 [16 favorites]

All I know about psychopaths comes from B movies like Silence of the Lambs, so I'm only partially sure that I don't qualify. I do like bitter tastes, though, so perhaps I should worry.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:50 PM on November 22, 2015

What does the MBTI say about those who like bitter food? Judging from the MetaTalk survey, I want to know how many of us in each of those types are also bitter food lovers! bwahahaha!
posted by yueliang at 5:51 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

As I have become tougher and less afraid, I have lost my sweet tooth over the past year noticeably. I wonder how much this is tied to the infancy preference for sugar which shifts with age.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:51 PM on November 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

I love sour stuff. This is an infallible indicator of how much I like sour stuff.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:54 PM on November 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

Don't they have that backward?

They say " Individual differences in bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits"

But it seems to me what they've shown, if anything, is that

"Individual differences in antisocial personality traits are associated with bitter taste preferences."
posted by hank at 5:56 PM on November 22, 2015

dorothyisunderwood, some of it might be aging, but I can remember being the little oddball in kindergarten who loved unsweetened baking chocolate. I also have results from 23andme indicating that I may not have as many bitter taste receptors as most people, which probably plays into it.

My coworkers and I have been giggling over this article for weeks. Finally a scientific explanation for our cold, black hearts.
posted by zenzicube at 5:57 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

What does it say about me that I'm driven to a sudden rage that stavros is conflating sour and bitter? They're two completely different things, people!
posted by RobotHero at 6:00 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

This is bunk. I literally had radishes and strong coffee for breakfast, but I only made three people cry this week. (They all had it coming.)
posted by mudpuppie at 6:01 PM on November 22, 2015 [31 favorites]

What does it say about me that I'm driven to a sudden rage that stavros is conflating sour and bitter? They're two completely different things, people!

No such implication was intended. I just thought I'd take the opportunity to tell everybody how much I like sour stuff. Because I really do, friends!

Bitter, not so much.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:02 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

All I know about psychopaths comes from B movies like Silence of the Lambs

B movie? It did win like five Oscars...
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:05 PM on November 22, 2015 [15 favorites]

Ok, wait a sec, I'm confused. I always thought of radishes as SPICY, like a weird kind of non-peppery spicy, not bitter. Are my tastebuds out of whack?
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:06 PM on November 22, 2015 [41 favorites]

I got a tour of a microbrewery recently. I enjoyed chewing the nougat of hops I got from the brewmaster. I like hops. Man, that stuff is bitter.
posted by Goofyy at 6:06 PM on November 22, 2015

I hate bitter melons, so I am a good person.
posted by fatehunter at 6:10 PM on November 22, 2015

Well, anyhow -- where's the picture of the evil guy stroking a radish, eh?
Did they test for a liking for kittens? Did they?
posted by hank at 6:11 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

But what does the research say about having a taste for salmiakki?

- possibly the only person in the British Isles who likes that. Am I a monster?
posted by acb at 6:13 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I like my responses to spurious studies linking taste preferences to personality traits like I like my coffee: dark, bitter, and SCALDING HOT AND THROWN IN YOUR FACE.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:16 PM on November 22, 2015 [25 favorites]

OK, but hold up because I have a pretty solid hypothesis that self reported personality traits frequently negatively correlate to those traits.

I won't bore you with the details (it's like a Dunning Kruger thing), but suffice it to say that, purely coincidentally, I come out smelling like...those radishes cut up into rose shapes.
posted by ernielundquist at 6:17 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

nougat of hops ?
posted by Wolfdog at 6:17 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Radishes aren't bitter. if anything, they're a little spicy.
posted by monospace at 6:19 PM on November 22, 2015 [15 favorites]

I think it depends on how in season radishes are. Fresh, in season radishes = spicy yumminess.
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:19 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I am a kind and thoughtful, caring queen of air and darkness who loves all things bitter. So they can go fuck right off with their surveys. But bring me some pickled radishes first because I have somehow missed the existence of those and yeah, oh hell yeah.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:21 PM on November 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

bit of better butter may make a sociopath better

Unfortunately, bitter butter may make a sociopath batter.
posted by Alter Cocker at 6:22 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

Maybe they're confusing radishes with radicchio? Because that's definitely bitter. It's also what's in the picture at the top of TFA.
posted by monospace at 6:23 PM on November 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Did they test for a liking for kittens?

Kittens are salty!
posted by mittens at 6:24 PM on November 22, 2015 [11 favorites]

One espresso, with a touch of campari, please. Make it snappy if you want my tip.
posted by ocschwar at 6:24 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I enjoy having jerks who made fun of my girly looking negroni try it without warning. It's even better if, after the initial shock, they promptly order one as well. I guess I'm a recruiter for the dark side?
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:27 PM on November 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

B movie? It did win like five Oscars...

I changed my example film but didn't think to change the description. Evidence of psychopathy?
posted by Dip Flash at 6:29 PM on November 22, 2015

I like gin and tonic but mainly because it's the only drink I can think of that actively wards off malaria. Does your favourite drink stop you from getting malaria? No? Well, enjoy your malaria then, sucker!
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:29 PM on November 22, 2015 [53 favorites]

Does your favourite drink stop you from getting malaria? No? Well, enjoy your malaria then, sucker!

Gin and tonic: taste the empire.
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:33 PM on November 22, 2015 [23 favorites]

Let the countdown to retraction begin. (It seems like all social science papers with a too cute by half conclusion eventually get retracted.)
posted by vorpal bunny at 6:35 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

TIL: I am not the only person in the world who pickles radishes
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:37 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Gin and tonic is actually the perfect drink. Gin? Check! Tonic? Check! It's got some ice in there, some lime, it's in a glass. It's got the fizz and the crisp icy bite to cool you down on a hot summer morning, and as you work your way through the day and the limes your gums get stronger. You don't get the malaria, and on top of that it's not like you're ever going to go to the fridge and all the tonic is gone. Who the hell just drinks tonic water? Nobody, that's who. Brilliant.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:38 PM on November 22, 2015 [26 favorites]

Radishes aren't bitter. if anything, they're a little spicy.

YES this entire discussion is so confusing. Where are you all getting these nonspicy radishes and furthermore why would you ever, why would you deny your mouth the spicy crunch party

admittedly i can't think of a single legitimately bitter food other than dark chocolate
posted by poffin boffin at 6:41 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Well I like tonic water by itself but I don't go into other people's houses so it is safe from my depredations.
posted by winna at 6:44 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

a single legitimately bitter food other than dark chocolate

Rapini, aka broccoli raab.

Bitter melon.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:50 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

There's not enough quinine in tonic water anymore to ward off a piece of paper with the word "malaria" printed on it, let alone the actual disease.

In the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the quinine content in tonic water to 83 ppm[3] (83 mg per liter if calculated by mass), while the daily therapeutic dose of quinine is in the range of 500–1000 mg,[4] and 10 mg/kg every eight hours for effective malaria prevention (2100 mg daily for a 70 kg adult)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 6:57 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

Black licorice is the best candy.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:00 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I really want to know whether or not a person likes cilantro fits into this somehow, mostly because of the potential for escalation.


I like cilantro a lot.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:01 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have to go to the grocery store tomorrow, and this thread makes a very convenient list:
Radishes (pickled if available)
Coffee (no milk or sugar necessary)
Dark chocolate
Gin
Bitter lemon
....
posted by susiswimmer at 7:01 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

There's not enough quinine in tonic water anymore to ward off a piece of paper with the word "malaria" printed on it, let alone the actual disease.

Yeah well I never met a mosquito that could read the ingredients label on a bottle of mixer so maybe if we don't shout about it everywhere it won't turn into this big huge thing?
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:04 PM on November 22, 2015 [32 favorites]

The correlation was about r=.15 across the different measures (or equivalently, only 2~3% of the variance was accounted for by the taste measurements), so the effect is small. Then again, maybe that's considered to be non-trivial for a large-scale study involving human preferences...
posted by tickingclock at 7:05 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I like cilantro a lot.

On the record.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:07 PM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

One of our favorite restaurant dishes is a winter bitter salad from state bird provisions. The restaurant has low yellowish lighting, the plates are earth colored, and the salad consist of roasted winter vegetables, pieces of chestnut and a yoghurt based dressing. All earthy tones, not much contrast and kind of desaturated.

I commented to my wife that if we took a picture, it would look like an old time sepia photograph. Then we tasted it and fell in love all over again. The base is bitter, with an undercurrent of bitterness, surprising notes of bitter, unexpected little bursts of bitter and a surprising aftertaste of bitter that fades away into a lingering sensation of bitter.

This is how we imagine life tasted before color photographs, when the world was sepia.

We tried to replicate it at home, test kitchen style. We bought radiccio, belgian endives, broccoli raab, chard, escarole, chicory, mustard greens, and others I forget. We spent all Sunday morning roasting and grilling and tasting. Finally by 4 we had a pretty good bitter salad, we ate like one pound each and went to see a movie.

We were tripping all movie long and deep into the night. For me it felt like that period just after throwing up when the peyote starts to kick in. I thought it was a flashback from the bitterness, but my wife has never tasted any bitter drugs, and she was tripping too.

We repeated the experience one more time, them decided it was too risky to keep doing it without some research. I have some theories on why overeating super bitter foods can lead to tripping, but nothing solid.

I will add 'releasing latent sociopathic states of mind' to the list. I like to think that we are one lick of earwax away from going full natural born killers my wife and I.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 7:08 PM on November 22, 2015 [33 favorites]

YES FINALLY A STUDY THAT JUSTIFIES MY HATRED OF ALL THINGS BITTER AND LOVE OF ALL THINGS SWEET

SUCK IT, EVERYONE WHO KEEPS TELLING ME THAT COFFEE AND DARK CHOCOLATE ARE REALLY NICE TASTING
posted by sciatrix at 7:11 PM on November 22, 2015 [12 favorites]

ALSO BEER

ALL BEER CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL
posted by sciatrix at 7:13 PM on November 22, 2015 [16 favorites]

> SUCK IT, EVERYONE WHO KEEPS TELLING ME THAT COFFEE AND DARK CHOCOLATE ARE REALLY NICE TASTING

> ALL BEER CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL

howboutno
posted by timfinnie at 7:27 PM on November 22, 2015

I love pickled things and I love radishes so why why WHY have I never had a pickled radish?

Pickled things, including radishes, are of course a big thing here in Korea. Let me share a super-simple recipe I love. Take one of those huge white torpedo radishes (I think they call them daikon, after the Japanese, in North America, mu-u here in Korea). Peel it with a potato peeler to get the tough skin off. Use a mandolin slicer to get teeny little sticks. Put them in a glass container with a little salt and sugar and enough rice vinegar (or any pure, unflavored vinegar, pretty much), enough to basically get to the top of the sliced radish, but not so much that they're swimming.

Leave that in the fridge for days to weeks, and: serious deliciosity.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:31 PM on November 22, 2015 [29 favorites]

At our last holiday gathering, I got into an argument with my brother about how the dislike of bitter works. I claimed it was all in the tongue -- ie, that people who dislike bitter things merely have more receptors, or more sensitive receptors, or louder nerve conduits leading into the brain. He claimed it was all in the mind -- that people who dislike bitter were perceiving the same basic input as those who like or don't mind bitter, but the dislikers are more psychological sensitive to the sensation in some way. It was a quintessential example of the sorts of arguments we most prefer -- ill-defined; full of biological, psychological, and sociological ambiguities; possibly unanswerable; and subtly insulting to each other, with the implications that bitter-dislikers are oversensitive wimps, and bitter-likers are sensorially- and receptor-deficient. But despite all that, and granted that mind and body are not so easily distinguished, etc, etc, I think there are some interesting questions here, just as there are in the related field of pain neurology and philosophy. This paper does seem to suggest that at least some of the taste variance may be due to psychology (though I suppose the causation could go the other way), even though their methods are pretty crude. Just because I can't think of a clever experiment yet that would adjudicate our disagreement doesn't mean that it can't be done, or that all sensation is hopelessly lost in a indivisible mind-body agglomeration so beloved by Damasio and the like. But damned if I can think how to test it.... Though that doesn't mean we won't resume the debate over Thanksgiving cranberries!
posted by chortly at 7:33 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

You can also use the slicer to get paper thin rounds, and pickle them the same way, which are great for ssam-bop.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:33 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

If I like bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and spicy flavors, do I get to be a honorary sociopath? Or a person with appreciation for different palates?
posted by yueliang at 7:35 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bitter is my favorite of the five flavors, sour my least favorite. But the umami lovers are the cannibals, no? (Keeping Stephen Crane's heart out of this for a minute.)
posted by kozad at 7:39 PM on November 22, 2015

My interpretation is that dime of us are very serious about our food preferences. For example, the chocolate in my pantry is extra dark, 88% cocoa. Touch it, and YOU WILL DIE!
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:43 PM on November 22, 2015

Argentina's de facto national drinks are mate and fernet cola, so i guess that says a lot...
posted by palbo at 7:51 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like gin and tonic but mainly because it's the only drink I can think of that actively wards off malaria. Does your favourite drink stop you from getting malaria? No? Well, enjoy your malaria then, sucker!

If you include the customary lime, you're protected against scurvy as well. I almost wish I lived in the 19th century, so I'd have an excuse.
posted by A dead Quaker at 7:55 PM on November 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

For the record, I adore bitter chocolate, dark coffee and gin and tonics, but I feel very, very guilty about it.
posted by thivaia at 8:01 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yes! Scientific proof for when I explain to people that I like my coffee dark and bitter....like my soul.
posted by astapasta24 at 8:14 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

When I had malaria, my boyfriend's parents came to visit while I was convalescing and brought me something like 24 liters of tonic water. I didn't have the heart to tell them that my Plasmodium was chloroquinine resistant and there wasn't enough quinine to make a difference even if it wasn't.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:16 PM on November 22, 2015 [11 favorites]

The authors have kindly put the accepted manuscript pre-print here (PDF).

For all y'all sugary-sweet gloating types, please note that there was a significant positive correlation between preferences for bitter (superior) foods with both extraversion and openness.

"People who like bitter foods are open, well-adjusted," the press might well shout.

*quietly eats another piece of black licorice*
posted by nicodine at 8:17 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I am also in the "radishes are meant to be bitter? They're kinda peppery to me" camp as well as the "gin & tonics are bitter? I think tonic is sort of sweet, honestly, and I prefer my gins on the floral end" camp.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:38 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

As a child I liked sweet things. As I've grown older, I've put less and less sugar and creamer in my coffee.

Per the article, I wasn't all that old when I developed a taste for radish. Coffee took much longer (college).

There are IPA's I can't take, but again with the same trend, I came to love IPA's as I got older.

Bittermelon I suspect will always remain a step too far. Although, it did intrigue me for a bit.
posted by habeebtc at 8:41 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

first of all coffee isn't a beverage it's a laxative
posted by poffin boffin at 8:49 PM on November 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

I find it extremely ironic that I'm a very bitter personality and yet I can't stand bitter taste and truly don't get why the rest of the world loves coffee so damn bad. I'm not super into most dark chocolate either. I'm with you, sciatrix! (And why do you want to acquire beer as a taste anyway, other than cheap drunk?)
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:50 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chocolate: 85%
Coffee: black
Black Licorice: yes
Radishes: peppery

First two are explainable by diet, I needed to cut out the sugar. but damn I do love the sweet. I stay away as much as I can though. If you get REALLY GOOD coffee & dark chocolate, it doesn't matter.
The licorice? Well sorry, it tastes good.
Also, where the hell are you getting bitter radishes?
posted by evilDoug at 8:50 PM on November 22, 2015

Oh, the evilDoug thing, heh, maybe there's something to the study after all.
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(not subtle enough?)
posted by evilDoug at 8:53 PM on November 22, 2015

Aha. It's contagious. First 2 'oogle hits for: foods taste bitter?
are:

What can be causing everything to taste bitter? - Dr. Gourmet
Tim Harlan, MD, FACP, suggests reasons for a persistent bitter taste. Dr. Gourmet is all about enjoying your food!

All of sudden everything tastes bitter...why? - Undiagnosed ...
For the past week, I have had this extreme bitter taste in my mouth....

URLs omitted because 'oogle.
posted by hank at 8:57 PM on November 22, 2015

I've given up on acquiring beer as a taste, because it's just not going to happen. I can choke down beer if the circumstances demand it (say, because I am having dinner in a microbrewery and it seems appropriate, or because my presence is required to fill out a beer tasting panel at work) but I can't make myself enjoy it.

I would have liked to though, because there are just circumstances where grabbing a beer is the most appropriate possible beverage choice. Ball games. Micro-breweries. Backyard BBQs where beer is basically the only thing on offer. "Oh, I don't actually like beer" is a statement that raises eyebrows regardless of how much you aren't judging people who do like beer.

More and more bars have started carrying a cider, which I like, because I can order that, look like I'm drinking beer and actually enjoy it. But it doesn't work for all possible situations.

I also wish I could develop a taste for coffee, for totally different reasons. (Most of which have to do with the fact that it is almost midnight and I am still only half way through a factum that is due to my mooting coach in the morning.)
posted by jacquilynne at 8:57 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite things about moving to Portland, OR is learning about International Bittering Units and seeing them printed on beer bottles. In a town full of IPAs I generally dislike hoppy beers. Being able to find beers with low IBUs is such a happy-making experience.
posted by bendy at 9:05 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

This really isn't relevant but for what it's worth I recently started taking a medication that made bitter flavors much more pronounced. I used to love hoppy IPAs and now I curse the whole craft beer can-never-have-enough-hops trend. The medication also (bizarrely) affected my (former) love of sushi, which I now just tolerate if all of my friends insist on eating it. What stands out to me about my experience is that I never really believed we taste differently from one another until I experienced it firsthand.

The same goes for hotness, BTW. I also happen to be taking another medication that's caused a slight vitamin B2 deficiency. One of the symptoms of such a deficiency is sores around and inside the mouth. I haven't experienced that level of it, thankfully, but I have found that I have much less tolerance for hot things. A small slice of a Serrano pepper in a Vietnamese sandwich recently sent me running for milk, which is something that's never happened before. Thankfully, none of this has made cilantro start tasting like soap.
posted by treepour at 9:07 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Take care, young ladies, and value your wine.
Be watchful of young men in their velvet prime.
Deeply they'll swallow from your finest kegs,
Then swiftly be gone, leaving bitter dregs.
Ahh-ah-ah-ah, bitter dregs.
-- Leonard Nimoy
posted by benzenedream at 9:23 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I've read that bitter was relished in medieval times...and that more sugar is added to dark chocolate than milk.
posted by brujita at 9:38 PM on November 22, 2015

a single legitimately bitter food other than dark chocolate

Dandelion leaves, arugula and, grapefruit. Oh and endive! Maybe pomello, but definitely the pith of most citrus. Seville oranges are inedible unless soaked for days then cooked with heaps of sugar turning it into a very fine marmalade. Onions sliced finely and left to sit turn bitter. Oak nuts. Green walnuts. De-bittered brewers yeast very much is. Celeriac leaves.

(I like playing in the kitchen)

Sometimes daikon can become bitter if it's been stored for a long time. I know it's made a few batches of my kimchi taste bitter.
posted by redindiaink at 9:42 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

bitter was relished

a pox on the sweet relish!
posted by mwhybark at 9:57 PM on November 22, 2015

I like bitter tastes as a kind of self-flaggelation. It's some will to power thing. I don't psychopathically make other people drink IPA or coffee or whatever, but I do secretly look down on you if you're totally phobic and just can't handle it. I'm suspicious of people whose pleasures are too pleasurable.
posted by mbrock at 10:47 PM on November 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

Maybe in an ideal world we would all go around eating milk chocolate. But this is a hard world and needs hard people who relish hard flavors like bitter. Even now our best and brightest are working day and night to distill ever more IBUs into craft beers just to keep up with the rest of the world. So remember that you're only safe from these flavors because there's a hero on a metaphorical wall who is willing take a shot of Campari for you.
posted by Pyry at 11:01 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

"But where is your greatest danger? In pity and in sugar. By consuming pity in the form of a raw cookie dough, I am transformed."
posted by sapagan at 11:05 PM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Right at radish season, I will instantly pickle some up, so I have jars of pickled radish during the lean months when no ripe radishes can be found. Even as we speak, there is a big ol mason jar filled with pink liquid and crunchy, peppery bliss in my fridge which I must now go open. But radishes aren't bitter. Unless they're old, and weary, and frankly tired of being passed over at the produce section.

Grapefruit is bitter. Burned coffee beans are bitter. Cilantro tastes of the devil's bathwater, but I can't tell if it's bitter because I'm too busy trying to remove my tongue if it gets near my mouth.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 11:08 PM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm so glad I brought up cilantro.


People are suffering a little just thinking about it.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:02 AM on November 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Dis-confirmation of the negative hypothesis always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
posted by Chitownfats at 12:51 AM on November 23, 2015

Christmas at my house growing up involved vast quantities of candy and nuts.

I particularly loved pecans in the shell, and developed a habit of saving up the pith around the nutmeats and eating it all at once toward the end of the day before dinner.
posted by jamjam at 1:17 AM on November 23, 2015

But what does the research say about having a taste for salmiakki?

A taste for salt licorice suggests that one is as bright and cheery as Finnish Death Metal.
posted by three blind mice at 1:29 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I also have results from 23andme indicating that I may not have as many bitter taste receptors as most people, which probably plays into it.

Yeah, why not, there could be some outrageous and unanticipated gene-phenotype relationship between factor X re bitter taste perception (and/or aversion to sweet) and factor X of lacking empathy (or missing part of a mirror neuron or something).
posted by cotton dress sock at 1:36 AM on November 23, 2015

Actual paper here http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Individual-differences-in-bitter-taste-preferences-are-associated-with-antisocial-personality-traits.pdf


Test subjects selected via Amazon's Mechanical Turk.... So, you got your selection of "stuck in front of a keyboard all day" people right there, with all the dietary tastes that the internet can provide.
posted by Sintram at 1:38 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Bitter melon FTW, you bastards.
posted by fairmettle at 1:55 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

This study (fwiw) redeems popcorn-lovers, whew (salty preferences showed a significant negative relationship with everyday sadism).

Item from the Comprehensive Assessment of Sadistic Tendencies: "When making fun of someone, it is especially amusing if they realize what I am doing". So I know genuine sadists exist (having met a few and read about others) but that is nutty to see written out like that. (Also, weirdly understandable, if they're narcissists; sure they'd appreciate cred for their efforts.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 1:55 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I enjoy a good Negroni. Does that make me a bad person?

Apparently.
Oh well. So be it.
posted by Splunge at 4:49 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have a two-year-old daughter with some... nonstandard tastes in food. From the moment she could grasp a cup in her tiny hands, this kid was drinking black coffee. Where others bribe their kids with Cheerios or chocolate, we use olives. She pitches a fit if she isn't allowed to try a sip of Daddy's beer. Twice in the last week, I have had to turn down her request for more pickles, because she was just drinking the brine straight from the jar. She is the only person I have ever seen who will happily eat handfuls of baking soda.

Dear AskMe: am I ethically obligated to kill this nascent next generation baby Hitler?
posted by Mayor West at 5:00 AM on November 23, 2015 [13 favorites]

I had 4 negronis once on an empty stomach and probably that did make me into a bad person.
posted by colie at 5:02 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Dear AskMe: am I ethically obligated to kill this nascent next generation baby Hitler?

My advice is, don't tell Jeb Bush about her.
posted by mordax at 5:36 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

I craved bitter foods during both my pregnancies. I suppose I have been warned.
posted by Anne Neville at 5:48 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

she was just drinking the brine straight from the jar

I gave up on telling my kids to quit doing that. Olives, pickles, if it floats in a sea of saline, they're on it. My excuse is, maybe their body chemistries are telling them they need more salt! Although I do tell them it's just going to make them extra-juicy when we serve them for Thanksgiving.
posted by mittens at 5:56 AM on November 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

(And why do you want to acquire beer as a taste anyway, other than cheap drunk?)

Because there are thousands of complex, delicious, wonderful beers out there, and that's not even counting the IPAs, which aren't really my thing. It's not all Bud Lights out there any more. I didn't really develop a taste for beer until after I graduated from college; you could still do it. I recommend Belgian beers for people with sweet tooths. Teeth. Sweet teeth? That sounds weird too.
posted by Caduceus at 6:16 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I enjoy malort so I guess it's time to get started on that volcano lair.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:41 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm always surprised by people mentioning that IPAs are bitter; like, I get that IBUs are a thing, and that hops act as a bittering agent, but there are so many other flavors to hop cones that they vastly overpower any major bitterness I can taste. The joy of hops, for me, is all the floral and foresty notes, which is my favorite thing about hoppy beer; it's like a magical pixie elixir!

Really? Huh. I have learned something, then. Hops do taste markedly bitter to me—and I really dislike hops (although I like many other bitter foods). I always assumed that they tasted bitter to everyone, but that hop-heads liked the bitterness. I would never have described the flavor of hops as "floral".

There's also a coppery taste in IPAs which I dislike—I don't know if that's part of the hops or what. I like stouts; I like wheat beers and good pilsners; I dislike anything hoppy.

Sensitivity to bitterness is very genetically variable. So-called "supertasters" are apparently more sensitive than most, allowing them to taste bitter compounds that others can't.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:48 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

You can also make crazy good pickled radishes just by slicing them thin and tossing them with sea salt or kosher salt and a clove of garlic in a mason jar. The salt pulls water out of them and makes its own brine — you might have to top it up a little with tap water if they're not submerged after a few hours, but usually I don't. Leave the jar on the counter for a couple days (it should bubble a little) and then put it in the fridge.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:49 AM on November 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

it's like a magical pixie elixir

You do no that no beer has been allowed to contain pixie since at least 1964, when over-harvesting of the pixie population led to a steep decline in stocks, right? I get that some people would be just as happy to see the little pests go extinct, but then we would see a gnoll explosion like you would not believe.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:05 AM on November 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

I enjoy malort so I guess it's time to get started on that volcano lair.

Being ignorant of everything, my first impression was that "malort" was a hip new nickname for Mallory Ortberg and I wondered how volcano lairs could be relevant.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:16 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

The acid test for a psychopath is . . .

The ability to drink, and a taste for

Moxie.
posted by rdone at 7:41 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

(And why do you want to acquire beer as a taste anyway, other than cheap drunk?)

If you tell me where I can get Evil Twin beers for cheap I won't be bitter at all!
posted by srboisvert at 8:03 AM on November 23, 2015

I have not yet found the right grapefruits for my now yearly batch of grapefruit marmalade. They will come.

I did find wild hops growing up my favorite canyon. That was odd, then I noticed them in a couple of other spots too. This place could potentially fill me with bitterness. Hydrogen Cyanide is a cause of bitterness in some foods, like crabapples, and probably the bitters in nuts, certainly in the seeds of apples, pears, quinces, apricots, peaches; many bitter foods have this, not in toxic quantities. Those seeds are used in folk medicine for a cough cure. I bet the bitterness alters the gut and respiratory, biome. It does so for malaria.

Here is your link of sorts, bitter melon is used to control high blood sugarsooTherebisnsome relationship between low blood sugar and behavior.
posted by Oyéah at 8:11 AM on November 23, 2015

I like bitter (preference for dark chocolate, etc.) but I also have a probably literally (eventually) killer sweet tooth. Like I would cheerfully eat spoons of straight sugar if I didn't know it would be awful for me.
posted by Scattercat at 8:18 AM on November 23, 2015

I eat lemons and limes like other fruits, and have developed a taste for black coffee. I've grown up on dark chocolate: something something "helps test readiness" something. I'll eat grapefruits, and - while I really don't understand who the hell thinks radishes are anything but spicy - I'll eat a bag of those any day.

AM I GRIMDARK ENOUGH YET?

IS MY HEART BLACK ENOUGH TO JOIN THE CLUB
posted by Ashen at 8:28 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Wait: radishes are a staple food for Fraggles.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:41 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

This must be a joke, in the style of Sokal. The research design has so many fails it's impossible to imagine wrote the article earnestly. Sad to see that it was accepted in a journal.

A huge study of Norwegian and Danish school children is underway, and preliminary results seem to indicate that learning outweighs genetics to a degree that is surprising to the researchers. They had expected to find genetically based aversions to bitterness and cilantro, but neither appeared. I'll post the study when they publish it..

In my personal experience, the meanest, most violent and manipulative people I've met always self-identified as empathic humanitarians. But anecdote is not data…
posted by mumimor at 9:14 AM on November 23, 2015

I can't believe they allowed researchers to give cilantro to children. How did that get past their ethics board?
posted by mittens at 9:18 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

"I like my women like I like my coffee...covered in bees!"
- Eddie Izzard
posted by Bob Regular at 9:41 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

AM I GRIMDARK ENOUGH YET?

IN THE BITTER FUTURE OF WARHAMMER 40K, THERE ARE ONLY RADISHES!!!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:04 AM on November 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

They had expected to find genetically based aversions to bitterness and cilantro, but neither appeared.

I recall reading somewhere that cilantro aversion is a combination of genetics and exposure/experience, with the emphasis on experience. So those of us with the wrong genes could have been saved by pleasurable experiences with it. The article suggested that you could still retrain your brain's interpretation of cilantro from "yuck! soap!" to "yum, fresh!" They recommended making a pesto with cilantro to reduce to soapiness (something about enzymes).
posted by ghost phoneme at 10:37 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I sent this link to a friend who likes bitter melon. She replied, "You know, I think the more likely future serial killer is the person who remembers to crush the victim’s teeth." So I've clearly talked with her before about stuff I learned on MeFi.
posted by Herr Zebrurka at 12:08 PM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I enjoy malort so I guess it's time to get started on that volcano lair.


I am not sure what is a more reliable indicator of your psychopathy - your professed "enjoyment" of malort or your willingness to lie so flagrantly.

Nobody enjoys malort.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:23 PM on November 23, 2015

So, wait...what about people who like hot, like habanero hot? People who think sri racha is like ketchup? What about them, cuz...
posted by Chuffy at 3:53 PM on November 23, 2015

When I was 7 and my sister was 3, I'd boost her up on the counter so she could scavenge the upper cupboards for baking chocolate while mom was off to get dad at the airport or train station. "It's not good but it is," she said. I had to wash her face of dark drool and burn the wrapper over the toilet before mom got home.

We never got caught but 35 years later I caught my progeny doing the same thing. Hoists himself on the counter, top of the fridge was next, and then he sits with his legs dangling off the fridge and eats half a pound of bitter chocolate.

I'd felt him leave the bed and got out of it a few minutes later with a camera. Snapped every 30 seconds from a hidden place. I didn't want to surprise him during his chocolate coma and have him fall to the floor, so I went to the other end of the house and called him like I'd just noticed he was MIA.

He jumped off the fridge and lied to me about drinking water. I don't think he is a psychopath.

He believes in the bean. Chocolate, vanilla, coffee.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:58 PM on November 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Try bitter melon with potato, yogurt, and cumin. Om nom.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:43 PM on November 23, 2015

I told you man. Grapefruit-likers. Can't trust 'em.
posted by Drexen at 3:27 AM on November 24, 2015