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Just read that coffee only tastes bitter to some people because of a gene, is that real?
I saw this thing from a DNA testing company that said about 25 percent of people have a gene that makes caffeine taste way more bitter, so they drink less coffee on average. Half of me thinks it's a real thing since my wife hates coffee no matter how I brew it, and half of me thinks it's just a sales pitch for a spit test. Anyone here actually looked into this or is it junk science?
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michael_williams5d ago
Ha, I have to push back a little here. That gene thing is actually pretty well studied, it's called TAS2R38 and it's tied to how you taste bitter stuff in general, not just caffeine. But here's the catch, the DNA test companies love to make it sound like the whole story when it's really just one small piece. Your wife hating coffee could be that gene, or it could just be that coffee is an acquired taste and she never got past it, or she's a supertaster in general, which is a whole different thing. So yeah it's real science, but the stuff those companies sell you is way oversold, take it with a grain of salt.
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