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Coriander, also known as cilantro, is likely the most polarising herb in your kitchen.
It tastes fresh and delicious to some. Others detect an unmistakable and unpleasant soapy flavour.
How can the same plant taste so different?
Taste is one of our more enigmatic senses. The way it works is confusing, and understanding flavour may be more complicated than it seems.
Credit: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=100133434)
A MATTER OF TASTE
Taste is considered one of our true primary senses along with sight, smell, touch and sound.
But it is better understood as an amalgamation of senses.
The long-standing idea that different areas of the tongue detect certain flavours is now considered a misconception.
Bitterness is the exception, which the very back of our tongue is very sensitive to. This is possibly an evolutionary ‘last resort’ in case we have eaten poison.
Current science indicates that taste – and broadly our food preferences – are at least partly determined by our genes.
TONGUE AND CHEEK
The surface of the human tongue is covered in little bumps called papillae.
Each papilla is embedded with tiny taste buds, which send taste information to the brain.
There are genetic differences between the taste buds on individual tongues.
For example, the ability to detect the bitter chemical PTC is determined by our genes.
Credit: Jennifer Leigh (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cat_tongue_macro.jpg)
Our senses of smell and touch also contribute to what we understand as taste.
The texture of food is sometimes considered more important than the taste itself. This is determined by how foods feel. Our mouths also have temperature receptors.
On top of that, our olfactory sense – what we smell – plays a crucial part in whether we find foods delicious or disgusting.
SMELLS LIKE GENE SPIRIT
So what about twins? Do they experience the same yuck or yum?
At the 2011 Twinsburg Twin Days Festival, scientists surveyed sets of twins about taste preferences.
Curiously, researchers found 80% of identical twins agreed on the taste of coriander, while fraternal twins only agreed half of the time.
Soon after, researchers connected coriander’s controversial flavour with two olfactory genes.
One of those genes contains the information to make a chemical receptor in our nose that can detect aldehydes in coriander.
These chemicals are also found in broccoli, celery, and many soaps and detergents, which explains the soapy flavour.
Our tasting and smelling genes, like many other aspects of our personal genetic sequence, change as we age and can respond to environmental influences.
Credit: Unconscious Patient (Allegory of Smell) by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1624-25 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smell,_by_Rembrandt.jpg)
So, the next time you are loading coriander onto your curry (or picking it off), you can put it down to the unique sequence of your genes.
