How Do You Drink Your Coffee - Follow Up

I swear at some point upthread I was thinking we could probably get similarly accurate results from some online horoscopes somewhere.

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You and I are just ENTP-A types. (I almost came to blows with a Meyers Briggs guy who my firm trotted out one time)

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That’s the one!

Under Health & Traits: Traits : Taste & Smell

Then it’s:

  • Bitter Taste
  • Cilantro Taste Aversion
  • Asparagus Odor Detection

The other two seem unhelpful.

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Oh, I’m definitely an ‘I’. That’s the one I always tested the most extremely on. The rest as you list was my most common though the E and P were usually very close to the middle.

But yeah, MB is a fun guideline but don’t be trying to predict behavior with it.

Based on any scientific basis, it seems your preference are inconsistent and irrational, then. :wow:

(Larry - How does affection for brett correlate with preferred method of coffee brewing?)

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My mother calls me idiosyncratic, wife just says I’m f’ed up! I’m good with that.

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But Nick thinks you’re cool? :cheers:

I’ve convinced him I am God-like. Or, he just likes the Amex. Not sure yet.

:wink:

You give Amazon too much credit. They both have “sky” in their names.

Next rec, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?

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And of course he’ll like this wine:

As the opening paragraph to Guillermo’s PDF for the PROP strips says, but unclearly, most if not all human beings are bitter and sour averse as an evolutionarily developed trait. Those fruit trees that use us to plant their seeds at distances from themselves, also larger animals such as deer and such, don’t want us to eat the pits, but to swallow them whole, so they will make us sick if we do chew on them. They also taste bitter, so by avoiding bitter, we avoid getting sick on eating fruit. Eating unripe fruit is equally undesirable to the plant and will make us ill, so we learn to be sour averse. As I said, above, taste is highly trainable, and we can easily learn to enjoy or be tolerant of bitter and sour. What Larry is looking for is probably a normal range having maintained or trained oneself out of being bitter averse.

Supertasters are not more averse to bitter and sour than normal tasters, just far more sensitive to it as well as all other flavors. Guillermo to the contrary notwithstanding, the scientific literature is consistent in describing supertasters as averse to what they perceive to be overwhelming flavors and normal tasters do not, and thus as seeking out what we think of as bland food. Just look at the Scientific American article cited above. There is less in the literature about the effect of supertasting on taste for wine (really, in the shape of things, not that significant a detail) but I was summarizing that and not assuming it. Really, Google for yourself, you’ll find different variations on application, but a general agreement on the issue.

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What’s the value of being a super taster in wine. The five “flavors” seem to be limiting, not beneficial, in the enjoyment of wine if perceptions are amplified (with the possible exception of umami) and none are really important in my enjoyment of wine.

As to Larry’s hypothesis on my wine preferences, none are true. No preference for red, white, sweet, dry, acid, bitter, etc. I probably mislabeled my self as a non-supertaster. I’ve not been tested, and my label was based on the fact that my olfactory sensitivities (where my enjoyment of wine rests) have degraded significantly with age.

None

100% agree

Exactly. And, to be clear, David, literally nobody in this thread who understands the topic at hand is claiming otherwise.

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So . . .

I had about 2 dozen folks in my tasting room. With each group, I asked how they drank and enjoyed their coffee. When they said they enjoyed their coffee black, over 90% of the time, it turned out that their preferences were for very dry white wines and ‘earthy and tannic and not overly fruity’ red wines.

Cheers

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If we’re going to attempt any rationality to this discussion, we should avoid confusing “flavor” and “taste”.

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That’s pretty much a no-brainer that preferences of different types of things will correlate. Jumping to the conclusion that one single biological factor is the cause seems like wild speculation and fairly counter-factual.

Jonathan points to real supertasters (not arbitrary 25%ers) generally not liking things with bolder flavors, including coffee and wine. I’ve seen studies on that. It makes sense that someone marginally more sensitive to, say, bitter, can adapt - and may have a good degree of incentive to do so. But, someone a few times as sensitive is much more likely to never adapt to anywhere near the amount necessary to enjoy certain foods and beverages. Why bother beyond practicality and necessity?

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I agree with this - to some extent. If someone is ‘bitter averse’, they can attempt to ‘adapt’ - or they can just find things that are agreeable and enjoyable to them. Someone who is truly bitter averse - and let’s stop using supertaster but just focus on that one aspect - is never going to ‘enjoy’ an earthy, tannic bitter red as someone who is not . . . except perhaps as they age and their taste buds become less sensitive in general.

So let’s just go to the ‘no brainer’ that you alluded to - that’s the whole gist of my discussion here . . .

Cheers