Journalist Joanne Chen, an unabashed, lifelong lover of sweets, had a hard time understanding why that's not the universal reaction. In The Taste of Sweet, she examines the physical, psychological and historical relationship between sweet flavors and humans, and discovers some pretty extraordinary things about our tongues, brains, societal perceptions, and why some folks will always have room for dessert. Read her 10 Surprising Facts About Our Relationship with Sweets, take her Are You A Supertaster Quiz and come back here to share your scores and pose your questions to Joanne Chen in the comments thread. She'll answer them in an upcoming blog post. How sweet is that?
Buy The Taste Of Sweet
And for those who would enjoy further insight into the questions/results of the Are You A Supertaster?, quiz, the author offers the following, "Researchers have detected a link between overweight subjects and non-tasting tendencies. Severe ear infections may also cause less intense taste experiences.
Of course, biology isn't destiny, and much of what we eat results from culture and learning. So while the quiz offers a good idea of your taste profile, sensory specialists can provide a better assessment by running taste tests, analyzing your tongue, and counting your taste buds."
4-13-2008 @2:17PM kate said... I NEVER drink any coffee...never cared for the smell or taste...so, i got that one wrong...for me it didn't matter what i picked.
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4-13-2008 @2:34PM CA said... Your quiz is not a quiz. Your type of quiz is not a right or wrong answer it is a preference and like the Kate said about the coffee neither selection applied to me so what is the point and how does needing to loose a few pounds determine whether or not someone is a super taster or not?
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4-13-2008 @3:37PM Boersema1 said... Sounds like a load of Horse Puckey to me!
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4-13-2008 @3:54PM barb said... Is the red velvet cake w/beets like the famous Waldorf Astoria recipe with 2 ozs. red food color or different? Thanx.
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4-13-2008 @4:01PM Dick said... We don't actually taste things, we smell them. That is why wine connoisseurs breathe in the bouquet of a wine, and why they swirl a tiny amount inside their mouth, while inhaling the scent through their adenoids.
Try this experiment: Eat brussel sprouts while holding your nose...NO TASTE. I learned this amazingly critical trick while a small kid, forced to stay at the supper table until my plate was clean of every exotic food my well-meaning parents tried to teach me to develop a "taste" for. Really, it was a smell for.
Did you also know that our memories are most closely recalled by the smells/aromas that surrounded the event, more than visual, auditory, or tactile.
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4-13-2008 @4:01PM meghan said... I thought the quiz was a bit silly. I don't drink "stiff drinks," as I don't have the metabolism for it.
What was a little frightening was the "seeing is eating" study . . . 6200 extra calories over the course of 8 days, which is 775 extra calories a day!
I'm curious if supertasters are able to taste really subtle flavors as well.
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4-13-2008 @11:02PM Rachel Kramer Bussel said... This is an excellent book, I highly recommend it. Question for Joanne - what do you think of sweet and sour foods? Do you like them or prefer your sweets and savories/sours separate?
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4-13-2008 @5:07PM owen said... I used ZI Cam about a year ago and I can hardly taste anything.. last week I fixed a hamburger from my freezer and tought it tasted really great with cheese, mayo, onion and tomato....Next morning I realized I had cooked a sausage patty and ate the whole thing and thought boy this is a good hamburger...It aint funny.
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4-13-2008 @5:06PM sluggerdoo said... What the hell kind of a quiz is this? It's not a quiz if it's based on your preference! Nice going...
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4-13-2008 @5:22PM HorribleArticle said... Yeah this is a terrible "quiz" and proves nothing. Due to health reasons I do not drink, ever, do not intake any caffeine, and am also allergic to nuts (rocky road ice cream). Also (this made me laugh) after I did answer the questions as best I could, my response was "You MAY be a MEDIUM taster." LOL what the hell is that? I might be someone who is sort of in the middle of a range thats completelely ambiguous and subjective? Fail.
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4-13-2008 @5:28PM Pamela Stroud said... You used incorrect English when you wrote one of the questions. It was worded something like this: Are you likelier to do this or that? Well, you should have said, 'more likely.' I chalk it up to ignorance or the lack of teaching/learning in the schools. Most of today's young people have no idea how to speak correctly, and they are quick to make up words rather than find out what is really correct. The latest one that I have heard recently is 'misremembered.' There really is no such word. 'Did not remember' is the way to say that. When I wrote the incorrect word 'likelier,' I had trouble spelling it. I'm not sure I spell that made-up word the way you spelled it.
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4-13-2008 @5:40PM SKIP said... Eac of your "questions" started out, leaving the diet part aside, WHICH do YOU prefer.
In that case what could be right or wrong???
Answered to MY PERSONAL LIKING..
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4-13-2008 @5:59PM Jen said... I found this survey interesting. I also fell somewhere in the medium range; probably because I suspect I have a fairly strong sense of taste (not too portly, no childhood ear infections..), but have adjusted my taste over time, so that my anwers were skewed by life experience. Ie. I detest strong drinks, but my husband has taught me to really appreciate a good red wine with him and I do. I do think tastes, in all people, can vary with mood..who's to say I won't want chicken today and a big, fat steak tomorrow? I notice that people seem to take this as success or failure thing. I don't think that was the intent at all, so relax. And BTW, Pamela Stroud, both likelier and misremembered are both perfectly correct and acceptable members of the English language. :o)
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4-13-2008 @6:02PM shy said... I'm a super taster and super smeller. It can be really annoying sometimes because I can smell something that others can't and I have to find it so I can identify it. The tasting as well. Example, I don't drink soda often but when I would get one, I would get ice with it and I started tasting this burnt taste every time I would drink ice and soda, so I tried drinking the soda by itself and found out that it was the ice from the ice maker in the fridge, but no one else can taste it, so I started using bagged ice and I don't taste it anymore. Also, I don't have a problem with sour things they don't phase me. I don't know my family says I'm weird and that I should become a professional wine taster, because of my sense of taste and smell. We sit around and they give wines to taste and tell them what is in it and I hate wine, but its fun to find out that I'm right most of the time...
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4-13-2008 @6:01PM Shy said... I'm a super taster and super smeller. It can be really annoying sometimes because I can smell something that others can't and I have to find it so I can identify it. The tasting as well. Example, I don't drink soda often but when I would get one, I would get ice with it and I started tasting this burnt taste every time I would drink ice and soda, so I tried drinking the soda by itself and found out that it was the ice from the ice maker in the fridge, but no one else can taste it, so I started using bagged ice and I don't taste it anymore. Also, I don't have a problem with sour things they don't phase me. I don't know my family says I'm weird and that I should become a professional wine taster, because of my sense of taste and smell. We sit around and they give wines to taste and tell them what is in it and I hate wine, but its fun to find out that I'm right most of the time...
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4-13-2008 @6:10PM Kitty G said... >>Also (this made me laugh) after I did answer the questions as best I could, my response was "You MAY be a MEDIUM taster." LOL what the hell is that?
There's a link to follow at the end, and it explains in detail just what that means.
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4-13-2008 @7:02PM lili said... why does your wait tell you if you are a super taster or not? Is it because super tasters don't eat as much?
Thank You!!
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4-13-2008 @8:26PM Sharie said... Both my husband and I took the test. Whoever, decided that this was a test of any merit is crazy. My results were that I was a non taster so liked things really sweet or bitter. Not true, can't stand overly sweet things, tho I like chocolate it isn't because it is overly sweet. Results also say I like fattier things, I can't stand one bit of fat. I also don't like hot spicy food, which the test never mentioned. Yet I am a non taster, it would seem to me to be just the opposite. My husband who likes spicy food and sweet food got results as a medium taster. Wierd test, surprised the editors even put it on the internet.
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4-13-2008 @8:03PM jeff said... This is a very broad quiz. I'm more likely to pick one thing but another time feel like something else. Sometimes the dessert depends on the entre. Or wine isn't something I usually drink with a meal. It's more of an appetizer drink. I'm vegeterian so I couldn't honestly pick between chicken and steak. I also don't drink hot liquids like coffee. Iced tea would be the closest. I'm a supertaster without a doubt. I just found out I can pick out different makers of malted milk balls. I can rate american cheese on taste. There's a total difference between Root Beers. Hershey makes many different tastes and consistancies of chocolates. I am the Supertaster!
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4-14-2008 @2:09PM Vic said... What an ignorant and prejudicial waste of cyberspace.
There are an assortment of reasons for choosing chocolate over lemon. Personally, I like lemon pie just as much as chocolate anything, but seldom choose the lemon dessert because no one makes it as good as my Mother did. Chocolate as added mood elevating benefits and is good for female hormonal fluctuations.
Most of it is all just too sweet. Some things need to be a little sweet to be palatable and both chocolate and lemon fall into this category.
Why have to chose between corn and brussels sprouts. Can't I please have both? And why ca't I have only 1/2n1/2 in my coffee? Why are sugar and cream or black the only choices?
To jusdge someone's personal preferences as right or wrong is ridiculous. All taste preferences are valid.
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