Why do some people taste cilantro like soap?
Cilantro's Soap Trick
Why do some people taste cilantro like soap?
You're at dinner. Someone passes you a taco loaded with fresh green herbs. You take a bite and — wait, did someone drop soap in here? But your friend across the table is happily crunching away, saying it tastes bright and citrusy. What's going on?
The answer is hiding in your DNA. Deep inside every cell in your body, you carry instruction manuals called genes. One of those genes has a job: it tells your nose and tongue how to build smell detectors. And for about one in ten people, that gene has a tiny typo.
