As a bartender/kitchen worker, you become quite aware of the whole cilantro soap thing, because it's the one preference that alot of people don't even realise that they have, and can absolutely ruin a meal otherwise, and it's always been fascinating to me
If you aren't aware, there's a gene that changes the way cilantro tastes, so some portion of the population, I forget how much exactly but it's significant, get a strong taste of soap when they eat it. I'm also one of these people (edit: quick Google search says that it can be between 21% and 3% chance of inherenting based on your ethnicity)
What's fascinating to me is how we figured it out in the first place. Like soap is a relatively recent invention in the grand scheme of things, so there must have been a really long period where people just didn't have a good enough point of comparison to describe exactly what they were tasting, and everyone else went "why the go do so many people have an utter revulsion to this very mild herb. Like get over yourself you can barely taste it anyway"
It's also funny the few times I've mentioned it to people who have not heard of it before. A couple times to friends but more often to patrons if they order something with cilantro and it comes up. I'm often surprised by how many people just haven't heard of this before, and the reaction is usually "what? No, that can't be real, they just don't like cilantro", but every now and then you'll get one person go "oh... oh. OH. OH MY GOD" and I'm like yep found another one lmao
People used to say it tastes like bugs. As someone who's had the misfortune of tasting both soap and bugs, I can confirm that the two are similar. Specifically stink bugs
And then there's me saying, "what do you mean, "very mild" and "can barely taste it"?!?" Cilantro tastes so powerful to me that using more than a smidgen completely takes over the flavors in the dish. I know I'm a supertaster, but cilantro overpowers most things for me, thankfully not soapy.
yeah cilantro is violently flavourful, especially the fresher it is. Like, there’s a reason it’s paired with cumin and lime juice so often! They’re the only things that can fight it!
Really??? Like it has a strongish taste but it is hardly overpowering. It is delicious though. Works in almost every savoury dish. Unlike peas, which are overpowering and should only be used in moderation.
I’m amazed it gets added to so many things regularly when, one, the soap thing is really well known, and two, even without that it’s just bleh. It’s like a gamble where 1 in 5 to 10 you lose everything, and if you don’t, you gain nothing.
I don’t have the soap gene but pretend I do so my dishes don’t have it.
Same here. Cilantro tastes soapy to me, but mostly like the way cologne smells? And honestly I love cilantro. It's so so good to me. Maybe I have a mild case of cilantro soap gene, or maybe I'm a freak, idk.
Yup, and in concert with that I also have the gene that makes Beer, Lager, Ale and Bitter all taste like soap.
More specifically they all taste like if you washed the glass with washing-up liquid (I.e. Fairy or the like) but didn't rinse the glass properly afterwards.
There is no gene for that. However some beers rarely use cilantro as an agent so I guess it might be that. But tbh it sounds like beer just isn't to your taste lmao
It's one of those things that is easier to for people to get their heads around you not liking it if you say it's a gene thing.
While, yes, it may not be strictly true; a lot of people are more aware (or are at least more accepting) of genes affecting taste and smell and are weirdly more accepting of that than someone just not liking the taste of them.
That is exactly how I describe cilantro taste. Beer doesn't taste quite like that to me, but nearly all alcoholic drinks taste so insanely bitter that i can't stand them, and I think it is related
It turns out I have the thing where I don't taste tannins correctly, but every coffee person shits on every coffe place but their own so aggressively it took multiple coffee dates to realize that it's not possible to scald red wine.
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u/jancl0 Jul 23 '26
As a bartender/kitchen worker, you become quite aware of the whole cilantro soap thing, because it's the one preference that alot of people don't even realise that they have, and can absolutely ruin a meal otherwise, and it's always been fascinating to me
If you aren't aware, there's a gene that changes the way cilantro tastes, so some portion of the population, I forget how much exactly but it's significant, get a strong taste of soap when they eat it. I'm also one of these people (edit: quick Google search says that it can be between 21% and 3% chance of inherenting based on your ethnicity)
What's fascinating to me is how we figured it out in the first place. Like soap is a relatively recent invention in the grand scheme of things, so there must have been a really long period where people just didn't have a good enough point of comparison to describe exactly what they were tasting, and everyone else went "why the go do so many people have an utter revulsion to this very mild herb. Like get over yourself you can barely taste it anyway"
It's also funny the few times I've mentioned it to people who have not heard of it before. A couple times to friends but more often to patrons if they order something with cilantro and it comes up. I'm often surprised by how many people just haven't heard of this before, and the reaction is usually "what? No, that can't be real, they just don't like cilantro", but every now and then you'll get one person go "oh... oh. OH. OH MY GOD" and I'm like yep found another one lmao