• Question: Why can some people taste and smell cucumber but some people think it only tastes like water?

    Asked by Emm :) to Min, Marcello, Katie, Israel, Dheeraj, Aoife on 18 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Marcello Valente

      Marcello Valente answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      In humans the senses are quite dulls and only some people are particularly sensible, you have also to consider that cucumbers can have different concentration of water and sugar that can influence the taste.

    • Photo: Aoife McHugh

      Aoife McHugh answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      I am not sure, but genetics can cause some people to be able to taste foods differently. We get a lot of our sense of taste from our sense of smell.
      For example some people find brussels sprouts bitter, whereas some don’t, this is due to some people having the gene to taste a compound called PTC in brussels sprouts.
      Cucumbers may contain compounds that some people don’t like the taste of and some people can not taste it at all, this could be due to some of us having the genes to taste these compounds and some of us not having them.

    • Photo: Min Yap

      Min Yap answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      Everyone has different sensitivities to different tastes and smells. Which is why some people can taste and smell foods better than others. There are also some people who are supertasters, who experience tastes at greater intensity than others.

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