Cilantro tastes like soap

A

Ampoliros

100+ Posts
I think it's a genetic thing, since some people really seem to love the crap, but it tastes absolutely terrible to me. It may be because I'm a supertaster, or an unrelated taste gene. How common is this cilantro hatred in the general population?
 
i dont think its genetic. i like cilantro, but when i eat something that has a whole lot of cilantro in it, i have the same reaction -- that it has a soapy aftertaste
 
This isn't a "that aftertaste is a bit funny" situation. It is a "HOLY CRAP THERE'S CILANTRO IN THIS" taste. Also, the adjectives other people use to describe the taste of cilantro are completely different from what I taste in every way. I have heard people say it tastes like parsley with a citrusy undertone. I taste it as more like soap, with *** undertones. I'm assuming it isn't a supertaster thing, as I don't think 25% of the population hates it like I do. It might be some unholy synergism of supertaster gene + cilantro tastes like soap gene = cilantro tastes like supersoap! Maybe nontasters or normal tasters would taste the same thing, but at a far more muted level, if they have the same cilantro taste gene.
 
Amp,
I've got no problem with cilantro, but a friend of mine goes nuts if he sees a dish with cilantro in it. I mean, he acts like somebody took a **** in his borracho beans and refuses to eat it. Clearly, you're not the only one with this issue. I personally don't get it, but then again, I have a similar aversion to coconut.
 
There is a percentage of the population for whom cilantro tastes like soap. There's a certain component to it that most of us can't taste, but for those who can, that's all they can taste, and it permeates everyting the cilantro is cooked with.

For those people, they can't understand how anyone can eat cilantro. For the rest of us, we can't understand how anyone cannot.
 
I guess I was just kinda curious what that percentage is. 10%? 1%? I don't suppose any serious studies have been done on it. I'm a geneticist, though, so I suppose I should be the one to get on it. Maybe it has other side effects, like if cilantro tasters also have altered preferences for other foods which affect eating habits. Could be potentially interesting...
 
Salsa or picante with cilantro tastes like it has been made with dirty dish water.

It is not just a soapy taste to me. It tastes like dirty dish water looks and smells.

Cut the cilantro please.
 
The wife and I love cilantro--the more the better usually. Can look at salsa and tell with a high level of certainty if it's going to taste good because there will be plenty of cilantro visible. Now realize cilantro could be a big relationship issue. eHarmony needs to add it to their list of compatibility points.
 
Soap huh, are you people kidding me?! Cilantro is fantastic and I use it all the time... no one I've served it to seems to mind.

Jeez, next you're going to tell me that garlic tastes like Pine-Sol.
rolleyes.gif
 
I really dislike the taste of cilantro, and it also causes an allergic reaction when I eat it, even in a really small dose.

If I see cilantro flakes in salsa, I don't even bother. I can't figure out why it has become so prevalent over the last few years. I don't really remember very many people cooking with it at all ten or so years ago.
hookem.gif
 
Uhh, wayward horn, you do realize that how something tastes is not an absolute property of the substance, right? It is filtered through multiple layers, taste receptors, tastebuds, nerves, brain, etc. If my layers are genetically different, what I taste will be different. It is exactly like the episode of futurama where bender decided to become a chef ("that's not salty, it only contains 72% of the lethal dose of salt!").

Let's say, theoretically that you couldn't taste capsacian in peppers (birds cannot). You'd be telling everyone how fantastic peppers were, and how you couldn't understand why everyone else didn't love eating straight habanero peppers, as their flavor is so delicious. You might even try "converting" your friends by sneaking some into the food you made, since their flavor is so subtle and slightly similar to tomatos, they couldn't possibly notice. Then you would be calling them crazy or wusses when they think your food is the worst thing they have ever had, as they are crying and washing their mouths out with the garden hose. This is a less extreme version, except there are just a few of us that taste differently, and the rest of the world is full of people who are saying "you just aren't giving it a chance, it's delicious!", not understanding why we don't want it in our salsa.
 
I've got fresh cilantro growing all over my front yard. Mixed with charro beans or chopped up with tomatillos/onion and a jalapeno? Mmmm...
 
I love cilantro, but I know people who despise it. Several years ago Chef Sarah Molton (on Food TV) stated that it is indeed a genetic thing.
 
D_Wreck11....does your breath smell like you've been eating poopoo?

F cilantro!!!!

There's a vietnamese place in Ft. Worth somewhere that serves cilantro spring rolls. Nothing else but wrapper and cilantro. DISGUSTING!!!!

hookem.gif
 
Love it. Never realized so many others hated it.

That cilantro spring roll thing sounds like **** though. I don't like it that much.
 
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