Acquired taste

An acquired taste often refers to an appreciation for a food or beverage that is unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it, usually because of some unfamiliar aspect of the food or beverage, including a strong or strange odor (e.g. stinky tofu), taste (such as bitter teas or hot spices), or appearance. Acquired taste may also refer to aesthetic tastes, such as taste in music or other forms of art. The relationship between taste in food and taste in art is subject to much discussion. For more on non-gustatory taste, see the article taste (sociology).

The process of acquired taste looks very much like a form of adaptive preference formation (as described by Jon Elster). An individual deliberately changes preferences in order to make them more compatible with some situation. The famous example is of the fox who states that the grapes high on the vine are too sour for his taste because they are too high to be reached. By changing his taste, he feels better about the fact that he can not reach them. His distaste for sour grapes is an acquired one. In a similar fashion, acquired tastes can arise out of an internal conflict between a feeling of dissatisfaction and a belief about the aesthetic value of the dissatisfying object. For instance, I might believe that I ought to like sushi because it is a delicacy but I nevertheless do not like it.

Intentionally changing one's preferences can be hard to accomplish. It usually requires a deliberate effort, such as acting as if one likes something in order have the responses and feelings that will produce the desired taste. The risk in this acting is that it can lead to all sorts of excesses such as self-deception and pretentiousness. The challenge becomes one of distinguishing authentic or legitimate acquired tastes resulting from deeply considered preference changes from inauthentic ones motivated by, for example, status or conformism.

Examples

The following items have been described as "acquired tastes", often due to combination of both unfamiliarity and intensity of taste. In principle, though, anything for which one can have a taste, can also become an acquired taste. An acquired taste is distinguished by how one comes to have the taste, not what the thing in question is.

• Absinthe, a high-proof herbal liqueur, typically emerald green in color
• Aloe vera, a type of plant whose inner pulp is sometimes used in drinks, very common in Japan. Also seen on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
• Anchovies, small fish, cured in brine, known for their intensely strong flavor, often used as a pizza topping
• Andouillette, a French tripe sausage
• Artichoke, an odd tasting vegetable
• Balut, a boiled, fertilized duck egg
• Beondegi, steamed or boiled silkworm pupa, popular in Korean cuisine
• Beer, especially strong ales and stouts
• Bitter melon, an extremely bitter fruit similar to cucumber
• Blood Sausage, sausage made by cooking animal blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled
• Brussels sprout, a very odd tasting vegetable
• Boddingtons, a British beer.
• Bugs, especially cockroaches and big worms
• Calamari, squid, very often fried
• Camel paw, a Chinese delicacy served in the Forbidden City
• Campari, a bitter Italian aperitif
• Capers, pickled and salted buds or fruits of the caper shrub.
• Casu marzu, a Sardinian cheese containing live insect larvae
• Caviar, a prized delicacy consisting of salted roe (fish eggs) from sturgeon
• Century egg, a specially preserved Chinese egg
• Strongly-flavored cheeses, such as Blue cheese, Gamalost, Goat cheese, or Limburger
• Chili pepper the common source of "hot" spices.
• Chitterlings (commonly referred to as chitlins), boiled or stewed pig intestines
• Cilantro, (also known as coriander), some people perceive an unpleasant "soapy" taste and/or a rank smell. This is believed to be a result of an enzyme that changes the way they taste coriander leaves, a genetic trait, but has yet to be fully researched
• Clamato, a drink made primarily of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and reconstituted dried clam broth, with a dash of high fructose corn syrup, and USDA Red 40 to maintain a 'natural' tomato colour
• Coffee, a bitter beverage prepared from roasted coffee seeds
• Cow Cod Soup, Jamaican answer to Viagra, basically bull penis soup
• Cow tongue
• Cup cheese, a Pennsylvania Dutch runny cheese, sharp or mild, having roughly the color and consistency of snot
• Dark chocolate, processed chocolate that has little or no added sugar or milk, and therefore has a bitter taste.
• Dijon mustard
• Dr Pepper, a soda
• Durian, a pungent southeast Asian fruit
• Eel, seafood, an Anguilliform
• Feet, of cow, calf, pig, duck, chicken, camel, goat, etc.
• Fernet Branca, a particularly strong, grape based, herbal digestif
• Fish Sauce, a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment
• Guinness, an Irish stout
• Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish mainly consisting of minced sheep offal, boiled in a sheep's stomach.
• Hákarl, putrefied Iceland shark
• Head cheese, a dish made of meat from an animal's skull covered with gelatin (usually set in a mold)
• Huitlacoche, fungus-infected maize, popular in Mexico
• Insects, including gubs, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, etc.
• Islay whisky, Scotch whisky made on Islay, known for its distinctive peaty character
• Jiló, bitter fruit (cooked as a vegetable) popular in Brazil
• Kimchi, traditional Korean dish of fermented chili peppers and vegetables, usually made from Chinese cabbage
• Kutti pi, an Anglo-Indian dish consisting of goat fetus
• Liver and/or liverwurst
• Lapsang souchong, smoked Chinese black tea
• Lobster tomalley, the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, that fulfills the functions of both the liver and the pancreas
• Lutefisk, Nordic lye-soaked whitefish
• Marmite, Vegemite or Cenovis, spreads made from yeast extract
• Moxie, a bitter carbonated beverage containing gentian root extract
• Mugicha, or barley tea, which is a popular Japanese beverage
• Nattō, Japanese fermented soybeans
• Octopus, seafood, a cephalopod
• Olives, fermented or cured fruit of the olive tree, come in different varieties and have a salty, bitter, oily taste.
• Organ meats, whether tripe, brains, eyeballs, giblets, liver, sweetbreads, etc.
• Phở, also known as Vietnamese Rice Noodle, is known for its distinct smell and taste.
• Pickled eggs
• Pickled pigs feet
• Pu erh, a compressed, aged tea dominated by strong, earthy overtones
• Rivella, a Swiss carbonated soft drink. It is made from whey, also known as milk plasma.
• Root beer, an herbal flavored soft drink
• Rocky Mountain oysters, testicles of bull or boar
• Prairie Oysters, testicles of a bull, calf, or deer. Term originates from Canadian Prairies.
• Salmiak/Drop — Finnish/Dutch ammonium salt liquorice candy
• Sea Cucumber, a member of the sea urchin family
• Scotch whisky, a woody tasting alcoholic substance.
• Scrapple, a slab of leftover pork parts.
• Smalahove, the head of a lamb
• Stink Bean, beans bearing a rather peculiar smell, quite popular in southeast Asia
• Stinky tofu, a form of fermented tofu, which, as the name suggests, has a strong odor.
• Surströmming, Swedish fermented Baltic herring
• Sushi, a Japanese food sometimes made with raw fish
• Switchel, an anglo-caribbean summer drink based on vinegar and molasses, also called Hayamker's Punch
• Tempeh, a fermented food made from soybeans popular in Southeast Asia
• Tonic water, carbonated water flavored with quinine, giving the beverage its bitter taste.
• Tobacco, Smoked, chewed, etc
• Uni, sea urchin
• Unicum, a Hungarian herbal bitter
• Vegemite
• Wasabi, and similarly Horseradish, due to their pungent odors and strong taste
• Wine

See also

• Aftertaste
• Habituation