I've been a fan of humor writer Dave Barry since I was in my teens. A line from one of his columns has always stuck in my mind.
"This beer tastes like llama spit."
I thought of my first experience drinking beer (in college at a frat party), and I totally agreed with Dave Barry. I couldn't figure out why anyone would drink this stuff except to try to get drunk. Surely no one drank it for the taste.
Now, granted, being a frat party, I'm sure they were probably serving Milwaukee's Best (more commonly known as "Beast"), so it wasn't exactly top quality, but in my younger days I really could not discern any difference between that and supposedly better beers. They all tasted like llama spit (or, what I imagine llama spit might taste like)
Fast-forward a couple decades. I no longer hate beer. It's not my beverage of choice and I don't drink it very often. Maybe part of it is that we only buy craft beers now, which my husband swears are a lot better, but I imagine my 21-year-old self would still say it tastes like llama spit.
What's going on here? I can think of several things I eat or drink now that I hated as a child. Coffee. Fish. Coconut. Yogurt.
Also... Grapefruit. I remember the first time I ever saw a cut grapefruit when I was a kid. It looked lusciously delicious. I was told to sprinkle a little sugar on it (so I did) and then I scooped out a section. BLEH!!!! I remember sprinkling sugar on it over and over again so it wouldn't taste so sour.
This weekend, Kroger had grapefruits on sale, so I bought a bag of 6. I almost didn't because I remembered how much I disliked it as a child, but I wondered... maybe it will be different now.
I suppose I should not have been surprised, but I only had to sprinkle a half teaspoon of sugar on my cut grapefruit and it tasted just fine to me.
What's going on here? Why do our tastes change over time? I joke that maybe our taste buds die off as we age. Who knows. That might be a fun question to Google someday when I have some spare time. At least my taste buds seem to appreciate healthier foods these days.
If you're interested in the "llama spit" column, I found it (thanks to Google). It still makes me laugh as much as it did in 1992. The Beer Facts
Ha! I had stuff change on me like that! Later, I read that certain food flavors (bitter, in particular, also sour) the taste buds don't fully develop and mature until about age 19-20. The article mentioned things like black olives, coffee, grapefruit etc. I remember as a kid growing up in Florida doing the sugar trick. Then later as an adult, I learned a trick of eating a little bit of salt made the "sour" grapefruit taste sweeter. Now I just eat grapefruit straight!!
ReplyDeleteLlama spit.... yea, not so much. Although... with so many of the new Craft beers available in Kansas (can you say, "Roll over, Carrie Nation!!"?), I have discovered a few craft beers that I can tolerate... in the hot weather... not very often...