I’ve been wondering for a while now if I might have that gene or whether Cilantro is just a herb i dislike. I can stomach dishes with cilantro in them, but it just stings through everything. No matter how little was put in, it tastes to me like somebody over-cilantro’d the dish. I’ve never eaten anything where I thought “Mmmh, yes, there’s a subtle hint of cilantro” - it’s always “Oh, there’s the cilantro, and it’s just too strong”.
But whenever I read about this online, people say that it tastes like soap. It’s been a couple of years since I was toddler enough to just put soap in my mouth. But in my mind, the taste of soap is mostly bitter, with an overwhelming tropical/fruity/citrussy flavor of whatever the producers decided to make the soap smell like. I also imagine it having a really unpleasant texture/mouthfeel. I have no urge to try eating soap, just so I can compare it with the taste of a herb. And I assume that most people with the Cilantro-gene also haven’t made an actual taste-comparison. So hence my question: In what way does anything - but cilantro in particular - taste like soap?
I can’t answer your question, because it doesn’t taste like soap to me either. Just as you described, it tastes overwhelmingly strong and unpleasant to me, so I assume I have the gene. I do think sometimes it tastes appropriate buried in amongst other flavors though.
I mean, there can be multiple different gene variations. I have the soap thing and I can’t remember tasting anything other than soap, although admittedly I haven’t tried cilantro in isolation or in enough dishes to be able to tell for sure.
I’m willing to bet it tastes soapy to everyone, it’s just that not everyone likes it. It’s another one of those weird “look at me, I’m unique” things (no, aphantasia doesn’t exist either, Kevin, nobody has a TV in their head).
It’s literally a genetic thing though.
I tend to think this is correct because I both think it tastes like soap and I like it. I would just tend to describe it as “clean” and “fresh” tasting instead of “soapy”.
I mean, we’re not talking about a clean or fresh or citrussy taste of perfumed soap. We’re talking someone did the dishes with dish soap and didn’t properly rinse afterwards. That’s genuinely what I thought had happened when I learned of cilantro.
Same here. My brother and I had a discussion about this one time after he refused to eat his tacos because they had cilantro on them. We both agree that it tastes like soap. The difference is that he hates it while I don’t mind it or usually enjoy it. I’ve always been the more adventurous eater between the two of us, so maybe that has something to do with it? It tastes to me like a non-sweet version of how Irish Spring soap smells.
This is it exactly! I remember clearly the first time I had it. It was shocking and off putting because it was so different from anything I’d had before. But after that first experience of shock, it gradually grew on me until I actually enjoyed it.
I think this difference comes down to how open-minded folks are about trying new things.
I remember having a very similar experience with American Chinese food when one restaurant my parents started going to put large-ish chunks of ginger in one of the dishes I would always order. I didn’t know what it was at the time and told my parents it tasted like it had soap in it. Now I love ridiculously ginger heavy dishes.
Sounds pretty similar to my experiences well. Was not much of a fan as a kid but thoroughly enjoy it as an adult.
Speaking of ginger, have you ever tried galangal? It’s similar to ginger but more earthy, zesty and less sweet. Used in many Thai dishes.
No, that’s not how it works at all.
I had no idea it tasted “soapy” to some people until I was… Older. Like multiple decades in age.
Then I only found out from a friend who’d become one helluva cook and he told me it tastes like soap to him - and that’s how it is for some people.
Um… I hate to break it to you but I kind of do have a tv in my head. So do lots of people.
Yep, was surprised when my friend told me what his aphantasia was like.
When I was a kid, I had watched some movies so many times that I could actually play back the entire movie start to finish in my head, with visuals and audio. Made some long car/bus trips more bearable.
When I read books, I usually end up casting characters using celebrities I know, and enter a sort of flow state where I watch it play out in my mind like a movie. Voiced dialog and cinematography and everything.
Surprised me that a lot of people just can’t do that. They understand everything but just can’t visualize.
And I could not do math without the ability to create graphs in my head.
And yeah, reading would be a lot more boring without being able to picture what’s going on. I’ve definitely confused movies and books before because my memory of the book feels just as vivid as recalling a movie i’ve seen.
I’m literally writing something right now by watching scenes play out in my head, and describing them on paper.
What’s Aphantasia?
It doesn’t always taste like soap to me. But when it does, it literally tastes like the lather/residue from unscented bar soap. Like if you wash your hands but don’t thoroughly rinse them, then eat finger food. It’s a basic (as opposed to acidic) flavor, that really doesn’t taste like anything other than soap.
It doesn’t taste soapy to me, but more like bug spray that I accidentally got in my mouth as a kid. Weirdly chemically
It tastes like metal to me - not soap
For me, it tastes like a stink bug had farted in my generel direction. same scent, not that intense.
Imagine someone loaded the dish with wintergreen bubble gum.
I always thought of it being like someone shaved a bar of Irish Spring on top of your food.
As a kid, my mother actually did the completely stupid cliche of “washing your mouth out with soap” when I said a “bad word”, so I know exactly what soap tastes like (this being cheap bar soap like Irish Spring, Zest, etc). And cilantro really does taste pretty close to that to me.
Irish spring for me. It got in and around my molars and I tasted that for hours.
Yep, same here, once it was between your teeth you were not getting rid of that taste for a long while.
thats so fucked up. sorry you went through that abuse.
Nobody should be forced to eat cilantro
lol
It is a chemical aftertaste. Like a weak soap or maybe even an unscented air freshener. I can eat the food if there isn’t much cilantro in it.
It doesn’t taste like soap, it tastes like Satan’s dingle berries
Mmmm
Keep in mind, just because it doesn’t taste like soap to you, doesn’t mean you should like it. People have their own unique tastes. I, for instance, don’t like most fish, and think that describing a thing as what it is - means it’s bad - is a weird thing: “this fish is fishy” = gross. “This chicken is chickeny” = delicious.
All that said, you just don’t like cilantro, that’s fine. My wife doesn’t like strawberries. I can’t understand it, but I accept it.
Palmolive. That’s what it tasted like to me when I went looking for it.
I once ate a handful of cilantro to see if I could taste it, and I could, a little bit. Then I swore not to do that again because normally, I love cilantro.
Coffee tastes exactly like hot wet loam to me. I detested the flavor.
I’m a grown ass man, and I fucking hate coffee.
I hate cilantro and other things like horseradish and wasabi but like I love jalepeno and popeye spicy chicken so its not just a heat thing. Anyway for me cilantro tastes like dirt and horseradish/wasabi just has this nasty taste. Funny thing is cilantro has become so popular I have developed a kind of resistance to it. Like I can eat something with cilantro but it will bring it down. I used to take one bite of something with cilantro and had to find something to get the taste out of my mouth. A really funny thing was I sepent a massive amount of time thinking I hated avocado because I only incountered it in guacomole which as far as I can tell always has cilantro. Man when I had just some avocado on something I was like. holy fuckin trump, this is awesome.
I don’t know about the gene, and I do like cilantro. However there are times when I can understand how it tastes soapy to people. It does have a bitterness to it, and combined with its very aromatic nature, it reminds me of soap at times.
