Photo by Joe Lencioni '05, http://shiftingpixel.com
Several years ago, when I learned about “supertasters,” the people Linda Bartoshuk discovered who have extraordinary numbers of taste buds, my first thought was “oh, please, let me be a supertaster!” As luck would have it, I’m not in that superminority.
But now I know how lucky I am. Supertasting is not superfun. Imagine that you’d purchased a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, only to find out that the only flavor in your box was earwax. That’s sort of what being a supertaster is like. Everything that is even vaguely bitter to other people tastes positively overwhelmingly bitter to the supertaster.
Want to find out if you’re one? It’s pretty easy–all you need is a paper punch. (No, not for your tongue.)