I love kale! Menus can have both Caesar and kale salad. 
Itās very interesting to see the lists of which foods others find bitter. Bell peppers, cilantro, ginger, parsnips, etc. - none of these are bitter to my palate. Most ābitterā greens, like kale, collards, mustard greens, etc. have a slight but pleasant bitterness to them to my palate. Like Presunto, though, I donāt have much of a taste for sweets and I think my tolerance for bitterness is much higher than usual because of that. I like dark chocolate and find anything lower in cacao than 75% to be far too sweet. I drink my coffee with half and half only.
One ābitterā thing I have trouble with is beer. However, itās not so much the bitter flavor I dislike, but rather the hop flavor, which I would describe more as a vegetal acridity. IPA especially tastes like bile to me. The only other food I know of that has this same flavor is broccoli rabe, of all things.
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Ginger and radishes are spicy to me, not bitter. But I love spicy foods so maybe enjoying the burn is part of it.
I do have a sweet tooth - Iāve been in pastry for 20 years - but itās lessened considerably over time due to overexposure. Iāve been wanting to add an 85% dark chocolate bar to my lineup, so itās nice to hear from someone who likes it dark.
But now I do feel a little bad about the kale āwhite chocolateā I made for april foolās - I was hurt by how much some people hated it, but if their genes make it taste like bile then itās not their fault.
Speaking of bile, I was prepping an herbes de provence mix recently and took a bite out of the fresh lavender. It wasnāt the usual tubular flowers, but the fleshier Spanish type. Man, that was horrible! Up there with rhubarb-mustard jam at a resto in NY years ago. I hold grudges against bad food!
Tru Dat! I keep thinking of that ābiter beer faceā commercial back in the 90s. These guys are popping up everywhere, none know how to make a lager or a nice pilsner
In defense of our breweries here in SoCalā¦ thatās just not the case. Up to half the beers they offer at any given time may be IPAs but there are many at each that arenāt. We were at one last week where about 9 of 15 or so weāre not. This one has a Pilsner and two lagers.
Those are super bitter. I donāt do bitter well
I donāt consider myself hypersensitive to bitter. (I drink my coffee black and enjoy IPAās.) But yesterday I had some really bitter zucchini in a stir fryā¦ I find that some zucchini/courgette can be super sweet and some can be quite bitter unless they are cooked until soft. I prefer mine NOT cooked through till softā¦cooked but still substantial. Sometimes they are bitter if there is any firmness left.
Oh, yeah, definitely genetic. At least I didnāt get the soapy-cilantro gene. My dad has that, and I suspect he also has bitter-sensitivity.
There are two different issues: (1) how strongly do you taste bitter, and (2) how much do you dislike the bitterness.
There are some times when I enjoy a bite of bitterness, especially, as others have noted, when itās balanced by sweetness or used to keep sweetness from being cloying. Itās a little like enjoying a cold day: you feel the cold, but youāre dressed appropriately enough that the cold is a pleasant briskness. Salt also counteracts bitterness. Both grapefruit and tonic are bitter, but sometimes I enjoy ā even crave ā a cocktail with them.
But I hate coffee and beer. Bitter melon is inedible. I was served an herbal soup once that was also inedible.
I also hate soft drinks. I have a low tolerance for anything with bubbles, really (my mom once was fussing about not having enough champagne flutes, and I said thatās fine, Iāll take a regular glass since Iām going to try to make it go flat anyway); I taste the carbon dioxide (or whatever chemical is being produced by the bubbles) as bitter.
But sour ā bring it on!
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I also find bitterness in most greens tolerable (I love bitter melon!), but most greens are barely bitter to me ā like kale and broccoli rabe. I do find the occasional radicchio or arugula a little strong, but itās never stopped me from finishing my food.
Oddly, I find tonic water and some seltzer waters super bitter and undrinkable. Grew up also on a few classic chinese herbal soups and teas that were quite bitter. Canāt say I loved them, but Iāve grown much more accustomed to them and can eat/drink it with no issues.
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Not food, I donāt really like Negroni, tried several times different versions, still a no.
I know some taste may need to be āeducatedā to acquireā¦ But this, maybe I will pass.
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Not a fan of bitter as well. I just donāt get Campari. Maybe itās a genetic thing. Bought broccoli rabe only to toss it because it was so bitter
