SCIENCE & SUSTENANCE
How to tell if youre a super-taster
Some humans (percentage varies by race and sex) have a higher number of taste buds and experience tastes much more strongly than normal. Potter offers this test to see if youre among them:
Dip a cotton swab in blue food coloring, then paint your tongue with it. Stick out your tongue and have a partner count the number of pink dots toward the front. These are the fungiform papillae, or taste buds, and dont take up the dye. If you have more than 30, youre probably a super-taster. The normal number is 15 to 30.
You can order phenylthiocarbamide test strips online. Super-tasters experience them as extremely bitter, medium tasters find them tolerable, non-tasters taste only the paper.
How to tell if youre a super-taster
Some humans (percentage varies by race and sex) have a higher number of taste buds and experience tastes much more strongly than normal. Potter offers this test to see if youre among them:
Dip a cotton swab in blue food coloring, then paint your tongue with it. Stick out your tongue and have a partner count the number of pink dots toward the front. These are the fungiform papillae, or taste buds, and dont take up the dye. If you have more than 30, youre probably a super-taster. The normal number is 15 to 30.
You can order phenylthiocarbamide test strips online. Super-tasters experience them as extremely bitter, medium tasters find them tolerable, non-tasters taste only the paper.
Java "Tongue Power!" phile

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