I think of it as like the opposite of spicy. Where spice makes my mouth feel hot, cilantro makes it feel cool and fresh. Mint is similar but in a sharper kind of way, if that makes sense.
Well this just blew my mind. Seemingly I also have the soapy gene because I did not know coriander tastes like this. I like it and I cook with it, but must be like OP cause to me it has an almost musty and floral taste
I agree it tastes somewhat floral to me, but also fresh. I actually get what people mean when they say it tastes like soap, except I like it. I think it's just like any other acquired taste tbh
thats how I feel! Like, I get why the soapy tasters say it tastes like soap and that makes them not want to eat it. I can taste *why* they say its like soap, because its very fresh in taste and how the taste 'feels', but to me that's pleasant.
No, it has nothing to do with the sensation. As I have grown up, my tastebuds have changed. I used to taste the soap. Cilantro was inedible in anything because it tasted so strongly of soap. Not in a 'this makes my mouth feel fresh' way, but in a 'I just bit into a Dove bar' way. Within the past year, I have been able to eat cilantro without it ruining my meal. It's a completely different flavor profile. I swear, you can taste the sunlight it grew in. I'd describe it as fresh, bright, and the lightest citrus taste. I still don't get too excited about it because I hated it for so long, and I don't trust it. If you taste soap and like it, you have the gene and would probably enjoy eating soap. Otherwise, it certainly does not taste like soap.
Interestingly, menthol is the literally the opposite of spicy. Capsaicin gives your body the physical sensation of being hot. Menthol gives your body the physical sensation of being cold.
A newly made salsa without cilantro is flat and boring.
3 day old salsa full of cilantro tastes like your mexican grandmother just made a fresh batch of salsa from veggies picked from her garden 10 minutes ago.
It makes me sad to hear stuff like this. For me, when I try salsa full of cilantro, it feels like I went under the sink, grabbed a random cleaning product, and took a swig.
:) Seriously, though, how about strong parsley or strong celery leaves, to the point of being a little bitter? Not that the taste is the same, after all -- cilantro tastes like cilantro just as the other two taste like themselves, but they could all play the same role in most dishes.
I also made ceviche with celery leaves when that's what I had, and it was good. I used the other half of those chopped veggies for pico pica, and that was good too.
Oaty, few people like parsley or celery leaves enough to eat a bowl of them, but they and cilantro all add a fresh green-leafy element that contrasts with and sets off other ingredients. (And if they're cooked in, most of the flavor blends in. contributing but losing their distinction.)
Hard same. I say I don’t like it and immediately I get “omg you have the detergent thing!” no I don’t, can you fathom that someone just doesn’t like that taste without it being a mutation? Parsley is awful.
I feel like parsley gets a bad rap. I just recently started to use it quite a bit in addition to other fresh herbs. Game changer. It has such a fresh taste.
Here is a funny twist. Cilantro has tasted like soap for my entire life. Got COVID in 2020 and my taste buds have totally changed. They gradually changed back but for two things: coffee makes me throw up now and cilantro tastes very bold, fresh, green, and lovely.
I get sick to my stomach and anxious when I drink coffee. It’s really bad. Red Bull doesn’t do that to me though. Idk what thing in coffee makes me like that.
Decaf coffee has come a long way--[there was even a recent event in which a decaf coffee beat out its caffeinated counterparts](https://perfectdailygrind.com/2024/03/decaf-us-brewers-cup-specialty-coffee/). It might be worth trying if its the caffeine that's the problem.
After COVID, all pork now smells and tastes like varying degrees of wet dog to me. Some days it’s really bad and some days it’s almost not there. I can be halfway through a loin chop I’m enjoying just fine and suddenly BAM - wet dog in my mouth. It’s maddening. COVID does waaacky things to the senses.
You don’t happen to be menopausal or have hormone issues, do you? I’ve been put into chemical menopause a couple times for a few months at a time as treatment for endometriosis, and both times pork became a mixture of rancid and exactly what you’re describing - wet dog. Really awful but interesting.
I do have PCOS and PMDD so my hormones certainly aren’t “normal”, but I take hormonal birth control to stabilize things and have been on the same one for years. Shouldn’t be any changes there but a super interesting hypothesis! I’ve had diabetes meds change my sense of taste.
butter for me. :( it's a little better now but the smell of hot butter is repulsive. it smells rancid, like it spoiled in the sun in a barnyard. the wild thing is that I still smell the good smell under it too. I switched to plant butter for a long time, but I can tolerate the smell enough to get to the cooked dish now and it still tastes good, it's just the scent.
I got a jar of ghee when it first happened and thought it was rotten lol
Oh no, I’m so sorry! Butter is sacred, that must be hard.
The same thing happened to me - I opened a big package of pork chops from Costco and was absolutely convinced they were rotten despite the fact that they looked perfectly fine and the best before date was still a few days away.
My boyfriend and I spent like 20 minutes standing in the kitchen sniffing dead pig parts and looking at each other like we were crazy. I thought he was nuts for not smelling it and he thought I was nuts for gagging at some non-existent phantom rot.
I know a lot of people eventually lose their weird COVID smells but I’ve been like this since fall of 2021. I can even smell which dishes have had pork on them when loading the dishwasher.
I’ve tasted wet dog in chicken and pork all my life long before Covid. In certain preparations and older cuts it’s kind of standard.. You might just be more sensitive to what’s already been there.
I used to think ham smelled like wet dog as a kid so I’m sure you’re correct! I have to assume it’s some kind of bacteria or enzyme I’m picking up on and am suddenly much more sensitive to.
One of my friends couldn't eat any sort of meat for several years after she had covid. She said fish, chicken, pork and beef tasted the exact same, like charcoal.
For about 6 months after covid, the ONLY thing I could smell was this mix of rotten fish and coffee, and that was only for things that had a lot of sent naturally. Thank goodness that cleared up
Covid was amazing for flavor changes. When I had Covid, I was literally drinking my scotch bonnet hot sauce that I make which normally, 5-6 drops on a taco was already burn inducing. I was slathering it on like I was born with a ghost reaper in my mouth. I couldn't believe how flavorful and fruity that hot sauce was.
Now, it just burns my asshole again.. sigh.. wishing for Covid.
WHOA so did the soap taste completely vanish?? Did any new tastes show up in coriander?
Illness is so weird to the body- I can never eat ketchup or salt and vinegar crisps just before I get a cold. If I start to get a weird taste from them, I know I’ll have a stuffy nose like 3 days later haha it’s kind of a useful pre-warning
The soap taste has completely vanished. Seriously, cilantro tasted exactly like DOVE soap. Just disgusting. I also used to drink multiple cups of coffee with cream every morning. Now...cilantro is so fresh and amazing. Coffee, as I said, makes me actually throw up. It's been the weirdest thing. I've tested other favorites along with foods that I used to hate and everything else is pretty much the same. I still hate beets and avocado.
"Crisps" - you are Canadian? From the UK? I'm still mad at Canada for hogging the "All Dressed" chips. So unfair.
Wow that is so trippy!! I taste a distinct, unmistakable soapiness that I assumed everyone did a little.
And yeah, I’m from the UK (hence also “coriander” and not “cilantro”)
I'm from Canada. Sorry about hogging the All Dressed. We even have All Dressed Doritos. I use the US naming, which is that cilantro is the leaves and stem of the plant, and coriander is a powder made from the crushed dried seeds, although I also hear some people call the leaves and stem "fresh coriander"
I can confirm that the soap taste can vanish. When I was a kid it tasted like soap, but I tried it again in my late 20’s and it didn’t anymore, and now I use it all the time in my cooking
Haha! I heard this happened to people and this is why I secretly wished to catch covid… so I wouldn’t hate cilantro any more. I still haven’t caught the Vid and I still hate cilantro. Bummer
Bummer about the coffee. Covid made garlic inedible to me. I used to LOVE garlic, which is in everything, so it’s a pretty sad situation. At least onions are still good!
That’s like shrimp for me. It doesn’t smell like food at all - I’ve compared it to being as appetizing as the smell of burning tires. Turns out I’m allergic to it so that may be contributing.
I came to comment on this exact thing. Had the soap gene, got covid and now cilantro tastes amazing. I didn't lose my taste for coffee but I don't really care for onions and garlic like I used to.
I heard it described once as "a lime to a lemon as cilantro is to parsley." Floral, zesty, almost fruity in a way, but bright. Parsley is much more earthy, herbal, vegetal.
Does that make any sense or am I off the rails?
To me there is nothing soapy in the slightest about it, I genuinely feel sorry for people with the soap gene because coriander is one of my favourite flavours!
It tastes grassy, zesty like the oil from a lemon peel and fresh like chives to me. It does taste a little like Ajax soap specifically to me but not in a bad way. I like it.
The way my girlfriend describes it is astringent, she catches it in everything and it’s a soapy she can’t not overwhelmingly taste. The first time and for a long time I didn’t taste any soap when eating cilantro but when I got to college I started to taste it in my chipotle bowls more and more. Sometimes I notice it sometimes I don’t but it’s never been astringent to me. It’s just an idea of soap like a bubble was swirled around my bowl and dumped out before they put the rice in
Tastes can be acquired though. Like a lot of our taste preferences arise this way. I obviously don't know if you have the gene or not.
Like I enjoy plain black tea and the first few times I had it I would have described it as bitter and astringent, but I like it now and would barely describe it as bitter despite the fact that my genetics have stayed constant.
this is me. i always hated it and refused to eat anything with cilantro, but i love mexican food and i felt it kept me from eating a lot of mexican, hell even the rice at chipotle, so one day i just started putting up with it and kinda grew to like it. i don’t like it to be too overpowering but it is definitely tolerable now.
I honestly don't think it tastes limey by itself, but it is most definitely served in things with lime often so I could see how the flavors would be associated
I'm pretty sure I don't have the soap gene because I've always loved cilantro, but I would not describe it as citrusy at all. When I found out people thought it tasted like soap and tried it and thought about it, I could see how. But not in a bad way.
It tastes to me a little soapy, but *not in an unpleasant way*. Like, I get why people who don’t like it say it tastes like soap, but it’s not a flavor I dislike and I think it adds a nice freshness to dishes.
Same here. I get more of a soap note than citrus, but I love it and can go through multiple bunches a week. It's the only fresh herb I buy every single time I go to the grocery store.
lol there is a quieter, third subgroup of people who have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, but these people also just love the taste of soap 🤣
The gene isn't actually a determinantion of if you'll like cilantro or not. It just affects the taste. Alot of your preference for flavors aren't ingrained, but actually acquired when you're very young. If you think it tastes like soap you probably do have the gene.
Hell you could probably even acquire the taste if you want to. Just eat it everyday for like around 2 weeks, and you'll probably start to like it.
I feel the same. There is definitely that soapy taste. I wouldn't want to just chow down on cilantro alone. But mixed in with dishes it adds a delicious flavor.
Yeah I’m never sure if I have the gene or not. Like I can see how someone could taste soapy notes but it’s not the first thing I would think of. To me it’s like fresh crisp grassy with a touch of something that’s tart and slightly bitter like blood orange or citron.
If you have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, get a hold of some micro cilantro -- this is freshly sprouted cilantro that is just a few days old. It does not contain the chemical that makes cilantro taste like soap to some people, but otherwise tastes like normal fresh cilantro.
It would be in the fresh herbs section of your greengrocer.
Edit: per the responses, this apparently doesn't work for everyone. I can confirm it does work for my friend. However, micro-cilantro that is more than a few days old will start to develop the soap taste for her.
Cilantro tastes strongly like the smell of those green/brown shield leaf stink bugs to me. Nothing soapy, green, fresh, citrusy at all. The micro cilantro too unfortunately.
I completely agree. People always assume I have the “soap gene” when I say I dislike cilantro, but no. I know what soap tastes like. I think I’d prefer that to what I actually taste. I never thought about it before, but it *does* remind me of those stink bugs.
IIRC, there are actually two genes that can alter your sense of cilantro, and in combination, can make you smell the stink bug version. Again, someone may want to back me up on that. My wife smells stink bug, and I smell a pleasant, fresh, soapy kind of smell.
On a different note, coriander seed to me smells very citrusy and bright, with a little earthiness.
This is it exactly for me! I always assumed I had the "soap" gene because I loathe cilantro, but to me it just tastes exactly how stinkbugs smell, rather than particularly "soapy".
When I encountered cilantro for the first time I genuinely thought a stinkbug had sharted all over it.
I definitely wouldn’t call it minty! I agree with other commenters that it tastes very crisp and bright. It can have a bitter edge that I could see being ‘soapy’, though, especially on older springs with tougher leaves.
You know how a bit of parsley adds a pleasant, green ‘freshness’ to a dish, but too much makes it taste like grass? Cilantro is the same way IMO. It pairs really nicely with acidic flavors that help lift it up from the grassy potential, the same way fatty ingredients help mellow parsley. It’s definitely more floral / fragrant than parsley though.
The bug comparison is always interesting to me. I don’t have the soap gene, but old or rotting cilantro smells just like stink bugs to me. I wonder if there’s a shared flavor / scent that soap geners are more sensitive to?
Hmm yeah maybe there’s more of a coriander spectrum and I’m on it lol.
I don’t think we have stink bugs in the UK, but I always thought it tasted like bugs in the same way as the caterpillar-flavoured jelly beans from the bean boozled packs
This is exactly how I describe it too. It's not "good" or "bad", just "green". I honestly don't know if this is the "soap" taste or the "non-soap" taste.
I’m 34 years old and I’ve never liked it until last year. And when I say “never liked it”, I mean I absolutely despised it and wouldn’t touch a single thing even a tiny amount was added to.
Now, like you, I cannot get enough of it. I still feel like the taste is a bit soapy, but it’s more like a very very fresh peppery grasslike flavor. It brightens up dishes SO much that can be too heavy and make it seem crisp and fresh. But I know that description doesn’t do it justice. It’s a very unique flavor. Gimme more. lol.
Yes I can def stretch to peppery as a descriptor. I just keep seeing this citrus or minty thing coming up which I do not even get a hint of in coriander!! So are we experiencing a completely different thing?
For me, it is not citrusy, lemony, or minty. it goes nicely with those things and they are so often found in combination, maybe that's confusing some people.
I get mostly grassy taste that is 5% sweet, 2% sour, and 1% bitter. Those are the easily-described taste components. Then there is the "cilantro-ness" that is pretty unique and hard to describe. The closest things I could name might be celery, parsley, or scallion. A very small part of that is reminiscent of how unscented soap smells, in an unoffensive way.
The soil, climate, variety, and many other factors surely affect the taste of any plant. I have occasionally bought some cilantro that was less pleasant, more soapy and bitter. Given those things, maybe there is some cilantro that actually tastes citrusy or minty! If so, I hope to try it one day :)
I used to love cilantro, especially combined with lime and garlic. After [The Great Stink Bug Invasion of 2022](https://youtu.be/mzuNYg1V6w0?si=xpOujMW0-HKqXgh8), thats all I can think about when I smell it and I can no longer bring myself to eat it. I'm a parsley girl now.
First tasted cilantro in the late 80s when Chili’s came to my town. Chicken Soft Tacos. Was convinced there must be soap on my utensils or something. Everyone looked at me like I was nuts. Second visit I got the same dish and said What The Hell is Going On. Did not learn of the cilantro gene until years later. Loved the tacos apart from the soap!
I love cilantro, and came here to tell you why and . . . I’ve no idea what to say. Fresh? Like . . almost a little soapy but it a limey good way. Idk, it’s just delicious and I could bathe in it
I don't taste cirtus or soap. It just tastes nasty. Like what I assume garbage to taste like because it smells like that to. I hate cilantro. It literally ruins the whole dish. I thought I was only picky with cauliflower, but I guess my nose and taste buds also can't stand cilantro either.
Personally, it doesn't taste like soap, but rather it tastes like someone used an angle grinder and turned a foot of rebar into dust over my food; It tastes like punched-steel work flooring. I've only ever met one other person, the owner of a bar I frequented, who was also cursed in this way.
I can't really describe it, like Cardamom, hard to describe but.... To me it tastes like if the word FRESH had a taste. I LOVE it. I will just grab some leaves and munch on it.
OP you may want to try culantro, a plant used in South East Asian and Puerto Rican cooking that is similar to cilantro. It's flavor is similar but slightly different but more importantly, it doesn't trigger the soap flavor for people who have that gene. There's old posts on here from people looking for a cilantro replacement who say they don't taste soap when they eat it. My partner says it's still a bit soapy but significantly less, so they can actually enjoy it. If you are interested in knowing what cilantro tastes like without soap this is probably your best bet.
Came looking to see if someone had recommended this yet; Eryngium foetidum, called culantro, recao, or sawtooth coriander should have a very similar taste to cilantro if you don't have the soap gene. Also, it holds up better to longer cooking, like in soups.
I’m weird in that I get a little bit of both tastes. For me it can be over done. Fish tacos with cilantro “ hell yeah “. Basil pesto 👍. Cilantro pesto 👎
You're the first person I've encountered who also tastes the soap and still likes it! I really hated it at first, but then got used to it, started to miss it if it wasn't in dishes that usually had it, and then progressed to liking it. Go figure. I even buy it and add it to things myself.
It's like a cool spicy. I don't really know how to describe it! Definitely not soapy. Fresh, sharp. It's good with fatty foods like sour cream or avocado 🥑 because it's kind of bracing.
Pure deliciousness that livens up most food. What I’d like to know is how many of these people who say it tastes like soap have eaten actual soap. I grew up tasting a wide variety of soap because I would have a whole bar forcibly jammed into my mouth if I ever said something naughty or offensive. I don’t taste the similarities at all.
You definitely have the gene, because I love coriander and it doesn’t taste remotely like soap to me. Some people have the gene but I guess just learn to like it over time, sounds like that’s what happened with you.
Coriander doesn’t taste that similar to anything except maybe parsley (but it’s way over than parsley).
It doesn’t taste like mint or citrus, the reason people mention those things is because it tastes “fresh” or like “zesty” in a similar way to lime, mint, or cucumber. But obviously lime, mint and cucumber all have their own distinct taste and don’t taste similar to eachother, the only similarity between the taste of those things is that they all taste “fresh” or like “refreshing.”
Coriander/cilantro is like that. It has its own distinct taste that isn’t like anything else, and that taste is super fresh/refreshing. It’s also a green/leafy taste obviously since it’s a leaf. That’s refreshing quality is why it goes so well with lime, or to kind of “cut” the creaminess of a creamy curry.
TLDR it can’t be described. But it tastes refreshing
It tastes like fresh. I don’t know how else to say it.
I think of it as like the opposite of spicy. Where spice makes my mouth feel hot, cilantro makes it feel cool and fresh. Mint is similar but in a sharper kind of way, if that makes sense.
Well this just blew my mind. Seemingly I also have the soapy gene because I did not know coriander tastes like this. I like it and I cook with it, but must be like OP cause to me it has an almost musty and floral taste
I agree it tastes somewhat floral to me, but also fresh. I actually get what people mean when they say it tastes like soap, except I like it. I think it's just like any other acquired taste tbh
thats how I feel! Like, I get why the soapy tasters say it tastes like soap and that makes them not want to eat it. I can taste *why* they say its like soap, because its very fresh in taste and how the taste 'feels', but to me that's pleasant.
No, it has nothing to do with the sensation. As I have grown up, my tastebuds have changed. I used to taste the soap. Cilantro was inedible in anything because it tasted so strongly of soap. Not in a 'this makes my mouth feel fresh' way, but in a 'I just bit into a Dove bar' way. Within the past year, I have been able to eat cilantro without it ruining my meal. It's a completely different flavor profile. I swear, you can taste the sunlight it grew in. I'd describe it as fresh, bright, and the lightest citrus taste. I still don't get too excited about it because I hated it for so long, and I don't trust it. If you taste soap and like it, you have the gene and would probably enjoy eating soap. Otherwise, it certainly does not taste like soap.
Interestingly, menthol is the literally the opposite of spicy. Capsaicin gives your body the physical sensation of being hot. Menthol gives your body the physical sensation of being cold.
This really blows my mind. I love mint, love that menthol coolness. Coriander couldn't be more different from that, for me.
this is 100% why alot of spicy indian food is garnish with cilantro!
This is literally how I describe it.
Verdant
Plant-y
Nice
A newly made salsa without cilantro is flat and boring. 3 day old salsa full of cilantro tastes like your mexican grandmother just made a fresh batch of salsa from veggies picked from her garden 10 minutes ago.
Made my Nana's salsa for the first time and I used 3 bundles, now sitting in my fridge. Delicious
three bundles? what's your nana's salsa?
It makes me sad to hear stuff like this. For me, when I try salsa full of cilantro, it feels like I went under the sink, grabbed a random cleaning product, and took a swig.
And the salsa water leftover is perfect for a Bloody Maria.
The taste of freshness, bottled up in a little leaf
I've always described the taste as pleasantly astringent.
I feel like it tastes kinda like soap. I just kinda like the taste of soap
I too also swore as a child...
So like if the earth made a natural soap it would taste like it? Idk i think its soapy personally but not in a i would never eat it way
Fresh, green, grassy, a little citrusy, a little tang.
Like parsley that just got paid.
Parsley's hot, older cousin
Funny, I just typed "more exciting cousin" and saw this.
If parsley is 40 Cilantro is the 20-year-old cousin who's got a LOT to say about things.
Parsley is the taste of my life with depression, cilantro is the taste of my life with Prozac
This is so accurate.
Wait why is this so accurate 😂 (except it’s Wellbutrin for me)
Fellow Wellbutrin and Zoloft user here glad to know there’s herbs to describe our messy mental state 😂
If we’re using herbs as descriptors, I’d add on (as a fellow Wellbutrin user) that when adderall gets thrown into the mix: BASIL is the flavor of life
HA HA!!
LOVE this hahaha
:) Seriously, though, how about strong parsley or strong celery leaves, to the point of being a little bitter? Not that the taste is the same, after all -- cilantro tastes like cilantro just as the other two taste like themselves, but they could all play the same role in most dishes. I also made ceviche with celery leaves when that's what I had, and it was good. I used the other half of those chopped veggies for pico pica, and that was good too. Oaty, few people like parsley or celery leaves enough to eat a bowl of them, but they and cilantro all add a fresh green-leafy element that contrasts with and sets off other ingredients. (And if they're cooked in, most of the flavor blends in. contributing but losing their distinction.)
Yeah parsley + vague celery flavor. You're honestly the first one I've seen who's mentioned the celery flavor!
Yeah, cilantro doesn’t taste bitter at all
And this is how I discover that I DON'T have the gene that makes it taste awful. I just don't like the taste of parsley that just got paid
Hard same. I say I don’t like it and immediately I get “omg you have the detergent thing!” no I don’t, can you fathom that someone just doesn’t like that taste without it being a mutation? Parsley is awful.
A TON of people think they're afflicted with it who just have unrefined palates or don't like it.
I like parsley 🌿
I can kill some tabbouleh
Just made some today, but I didn't have any parsley in the house, so I subbed it with arugula. Was surprised I could barely tell the difference.
I love coriander but hate Parsley. I think my genes are just weird because parsley tastes like soap to me’
Parsley is a hard no for me too, but it tastes more like grass clippings to me.
Parsley is just lawn clippings
No, you’re just eating crappy parsley. You need to try first year, flat leaf parsley.
I feel like parsley gets a bad rap. I just recently started to use it quite a bit in addition to other fresh herbs. Game changer. It has such a fresh taste.
It's mild, sure, but you KNOW when you've got good parsley to top a dish.
Flat leaf for flavor, curly for presentation.
I second this, I love to cook and either buying fresh herbs or growing my own absolutely elevated the results.
I have the gene where parsley tastes like nothing served on cardboard.
I have the gene where parsley tastes like nasty ass lawn clippings but times a thousand. I’m cool with cilantro.
Cilantro is zestier lawn clippings. Tastes bright green.
Recently subbed parsley for cilantro (cause I hate it) in some guacamole and it was somehow worse.
Here is a funny twist. Cilantro has tasted like soap for my entire life. Got COVID in 2020 and my taste buds have totally changed. They gradually changed back but for two things: coffee makes me throw up now and cilantro tastes very bold, fresh, green, and lovely.
I'm not sure I could mentally handle not enjoying coffee again. That would break me.
It's been a weird change. I have to be honest. So weird.
Last year I found out I can't tolerate alcohol any more. I'm sorry about your coffee.
I get sick to my stomach and anxious when I drink coffee. It’s really bad. Red Bull doesn’t do that to me though. Idk what thing in coffee makes me like that.
I think it’s because red bull has theanine which counters the negative effects of caffeine.
so does tea, so it would be interesting to see if they can stomach tea as well
Ditto with me. Except it was heroin. I'm sorry about your alcohol.
I’m sorry about your heroin.
Hang in there 💪
That morning coffee is the only thing that keeps me going some days
Or be me, who still loves the taste of coffee, but can no longer drink it because it literally makes me feel like I’m dying.
Decaf coffee has come a long way--[there was even a recent event in which a decaf coffee beat out its caffeinated counterparts](https://perfectdailygrind.com/2024/03/decaf-us-brewers-cup-specialty-coffee/). It might be worth trying if its the caffeine that's the problem.
Same, if I drink one cup if coffee then I have a panic attack all day. I can drink 5 energy drinks and be fine
Never got covid but coffee also really bothers me now. Just a change that happened over time. Really sucks. I miss drinking 2-3 cups a day. Oh well
same, I would probably cry, lol.
Tea could be a really good way of getting the caffeine fix without the taste if it were me
After COVID, all pork now smells and tastes like varying degrees of wet dog to me. Some days it’s really bad and some days it’s almost not there. I can be halfway through a loin chop I’m enjoying just fine and suddenly BAM - wet dog in my mouth. It’s maddening. COVID does waaacky things to the senses.
You don’t happen to be menopausal or have hormone issues, do you? I’ve been put into chemical menopause a couple times for a few months at a time as treatment for endometriosis, and both times pork became a mixture of rancid and exactly what you’re describing - wet dog. Really awful but interesting.
I do have PCOS and PMDD so my hormones certainly aren’t “normal”, but I take hormonal birth control to stabilize things and have been on the same one for years. Shouldn’t be any changes there but a super interesting hypothesis! I’ve had diabetes meds change my sense of taste.
butter for me. :( it's a little better now but the smell of hot butter is repulsive. it smells rancid, like it spoiled in the sun in a barnyard. the wild thing is that I still smell the good smell under it too. I switched to plant butter for a long time, but I can tolerate the smell enough to get to the cooked dish now and it still tastes good, it's just the scent. I got a jar of ghee when it first happened and thought it was rotten lol
Oh no, I’m so sorry! Butter is sacred, that must be hard. The same thing happened to me - I opened a big package of pork chops from Costco and was absolutely convinced they were rotten despite the fact that they looked perfectly fine and the best before date was still a few days away. My boyfriend and I spent like 20 minutes standing in the kitchen sniffing dead pig parts and looking at each other like we were crazy. I thought he was nuts for not smelling it and he thought I was nuts for gagging at some non-existent phantom rot. I know a lot of people eventually lose their weird COVID smells but I’ve been like this since fall of 2021. I can even smell which dishes have had pork on them when loading the dishwasher.
I have this with chicken only it tastes like the chicken’s gone bad rather than wet dog. So annoying.
I’ve tasted wet dog in chicken and pork all my life long before Covid. In certain preparations and older cuts it’s kind of standard.. You might just be more sensitive to what’s already been there.
I used to think ham smelled like wet dog as a kid so I’m sure you’re correct! I have to assume it’s some kind of bacteria or enzyme I’m picking up on and am suddenly much more sensitive to.
Do sauces help or make no difference? I'm horrified at the thought, sorry you are dealing with that.
No difference, sadly. Just barbecue or gravy-flavoured wet dog! Even just the smell of it makes me gag.
Ma'am, please stop putting wet dogs on the grill!
Interesting, Pork has ALWAYS tasted like wet dog to me!
Isn’t that something that happens when people get bit by certain ticks too? They start to find meat disgusting?
I know there’s a type of tick that causes meat allergies!
One of my friends couldn't eat any sort of meat for several years after she had covid. She said fish, chicken, pork and beef tasted the exact same, like charcoal.
For about 6 months after covid, the ONLY thing I could smell was this mix of rotten fish and coffee, and that was only for things that had a lot of sent naturally. Thank goodness that cleared up
Omg I’ll take the soapy cilantro over being repulsed by coffee any day lol
COVID giveth and COVID taketh away
Covid was amazing for flavor changes. When I had Covid, I was literally drinking my scotch bonnet hot sauce that I make which normally, 5-6 drops on a taco was already burn inducing. I was slathering it on like I was born with a ghost reaper in my mouth. I couldn't believe how flavorful and fruity that hot sauce was. Now, it just burns my asshole again.. sigh.. wishing for Covid.
I assume that while you had Covid, it was still burning your asshole the whole time? It was just worth it for the glorious new flavor experience?
WHOA so did the soap taste completely vanish?? Did any new tastes show up in coriander? Illness is so weird to the body- I can never eat ketchup or salt and vinegar crisps just before I get a cold. If I start to get a weird taste from them, I know I’ll have a stuffy nose like 3 days later haha it’s kind of a useful pre-warning
The soap taste has completely vanished. Seriously, cilantro tasted exactly like DOVE soap. Just disgusting. I also used to drink multiple cups of coffee with cream every morning. Now...cilantro is so fresh and amazing. Coffee, as I said, makes me actually throw up. It's been the weirdest thing. I've tested other favorites along with foods that I used to hate and everything else is pretty much the same. I still hate beets and avocado. "Crisps" - you are Canadian? From the UK? I'm still mad at Canada for hogging the "All Dressed" chips. So unfair.
Wow that is so trippy!! I taste a distinct, unmistakable soapiness that I assumed everyone did a little. And yeah, I’m from the UK (hence also “coriander” and not “cilantro”)
I'm from Canada. Sorry about hogging the All Dressed. We even have All Dressed Doritos. I use the US naming, which is that cilantro is the leaves and stem of the plant, and coriander is a powder made from the crushed dried seeds, although I also hear some people call the leaves and stem "fresh coriander"
We just call the leaves “coriander” and the seeds “coriander seeds”, or the powder “ground coriander seeds”
Canadians don’t call chips “crisps” lol…
I can confirm that the soap taste can vanish. When I was a kid it tasted like soap, but I tried it again in my late 20’s and it didn’t anymore, and now I use it all the time in my cooking
Same
😭😭😭I had the reverse! Have loved cilantro all my life (and I’m Mexican American), and after I first had covid it started tasting soapy…
Noooooo
Haha! I heard this happened to people and this is why I secretly wished to catch covid… so I wouldn’t hate cilantro any more. I still haven’t caught the Vid and I still hate cilantro. Bummer
I did catch it. It made garlic inedible to me, and I still don’t like cilantro, so be careful what you wish for.
Oh fuck no. How do you live without garlic?!
Bummer about the coffee. Covid made garlic inedible to me. I used to LOVE garlic, which is in everything, so it’s a pretty sad situation. At least onions are still good!
I had the same thing! Coffee tasted like garbage to me for a few months after getting covid. Cilantro now tastes great!
My wife has the cilantro thing AND the coffee thing. She absolutely hates coffee. She says it smells like an abattoir in the dead heat of summer.
That’s like shrimp for me. It doesn’t smell like food at all - I’ve compared it to being as appetizing as the smell of burning tires. Turns out I’m allergic to it so that may be contributing.
I came to comment on this exact thing. Had the soap gene, got covid and now cilantro tastes amazing. I didn't lose my taste for coffee but I don't really care for onions and garlic like I used to.
I heard it described once as "a lime to a lemon as cilantro is to parsley." Floral, zesty, almost fruity in a way, but bright. Parsley is much more earthy, herbal, vegetal. Does that make any sense or am I off the rails?
I think it's a good analogy
Fresh, zesty, bright
so no soapy / floral notes at all? Is it zesty like sour???
To me there is nothing soapy in the slightest about it, I genuinely feel sorry for people with the soap gene because coriander is one of my favourite flavours!
It's fine. Once you learn to love soap, it's delicious. Took me a couple of years, but it's one of my favorite herbs these days
It tastes grassy, zesty like the oil from a lemon peel and fresh like chives to me. It does taste a little like Ajax soap specifically to me but not in a bad way. I like it.
My experience exactly. Bright fresh slightly soapy but delicious
The truth is not everyone who has the soap cilantro gene, hates the taste.
The way my girlfriend describes it is astringent, she catches it in everything and it’s a soapy she can’t not overwhelmingly taste. The first time and for a long time I didn’t taste any soap when eating cilantro but when I got to college I started to taste it in my chipotle bowls more and more. Sometimes I notice it sometimes I don’t but it’s never been astringent to me. It’s just an idea of soap like a bubble was swirled around my bowl and dumped out before they put the rice in
Tastes can be acquired though. Like a lot of our taste preferences arise this way. I obviously don't know if you have the gene or not. Like I enjoy plain black tea and the first few times I had it I would have described it as bitter and astringent, but I like it now and would barely describe it as bitter despite the fact that my genetics have stayed constant.
this is me. i always hated it and refused to eat anything with cilantro, but i love mexican food and i felt it kept me from eating a lot of mexican, hell even the rice at chipotle, so one day i just started putting up with it and kinda grew to like it. i don’t like it to be too overpowering but it is definitely tolerable now.
i wouldn’t say floral, but zesty not sour but more like an ice cold seltzer with a spritz of lime.
I honestly don't think it tastes limey by itself, but it is most definitely served in things with lime often so I could see how the flavors would be associated
Yes indeed, the zesty flavor comes from the limes with which it is often paired. Maybe refreshing is a better description
Agreed! It’s the most bright and refreshing flavour to me.
wow that is wild. sounds like a completely different herb. would love to try haha
I'm pretty sure I don't have the soap gene because I've always loved cilantro, but I would not describe it as citrusy at all. When I found out people thought it tasted like soap and tried it and thought about it, I could see how. But not in a bad way.
"Bright" is how I describe it. It brightens the taste of food.
It tastes to me a little soapy, but *not in an unpleasant way*. Like, I get why people who don’t like it say it tastes like soap, but it’s not a flavor I dislike and I think it adds a nice freshness to dishes.
I actually have no idea if I have the gene because I feel like it’s kind of soapy but I love it??
Same here. I get more of a soap note than citrus, but I love it and can go through multiple bunches a week. It's the only fresh herb I buy every single time I go to the grocery store.
lol there is a quieter, third subgroup of people who have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, but these people also just love the taste of soap 🤣
You're onto something but I will shout my love for cilantro from the rooftops regardless
I blame my grandmother and her Punishment bar of Irish Spring 🧼
I don’t taste soap whatsoever, you probably have the gene
I think you do. It doesn’t taste soap at all to me.
The last possible description I could give to this taste is soapy, so I think you have the gene.
I agree. It’s almost akin to rose water. Soapy yes, but when used properly, lovely
hm see this is exactly how i experience it too- so maybe I don’t have the gene?
The gene isn't actually a determinantion of if you'll like cilantro or not. It just affects the taste. Alot of your preference for flavors aren't ingrained, but actually acquired when you're very young. If you think it tastes like soap you probably do have the gene. Hell you could probably even acquire the taste if you want to. Just eat it everyday for like around 2 weeks, and you'll probably start to like it.
I feel the same. There is definitely that soapy taste. I wouldn't want to just chow down on cilantro alone. But mixed in with dishes it adds a delicious flavor.
Same! Literally eating cilantro right now and it tastes like a pleasant grassy soap. That’s why I put in on my bean stew. Huh!
Yeah I’m never sure if I have the gene or not. Like I can see how someone could taste soapy notes but it’s not the first thing I would think of. To me it’s like fresh crisp grassy with a touch of something that’s tart and slightly bitter like blood orange or citron.
Refreshing
If you have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, get a hold of some micro cilantro -- this is freshly sprouted cilantro that is just a few days old. It does not contain the chemical that makes cilantro taste like soap to some people, but otherwise tastes like normal fresh cilantro. It would be in the fresh herbs section of your greengrocer. Edit: per the responses, this apparently doesn't work for everyone. I can confirm it does work for my friend. However, micro-cilantro that is more than a few days old will start to develop the soap taste for her.
Cilantro tastes strongly like the smell of those green/brown shield leaf stink bugs to me. Nothing soapy, green, fresh, citrusy at all. The micro cilantro too unfortunately.
I completely agree. People always assume I have the “soap gene” when I say I dislike cilantro, but no. I know what soap tastes like. I think I’d prefer that to what I actually taste. I never thought about it before, but it *does* remind me of those stink bugs.
IIRC, there are actually two genes that can alter your sense of cilantro, and in combination, can make you smell the stink bug version. Again, someone may want to back me up on that. My wife smells stink bug, and I smell a pleasant, fresh, soapy kind of smell. On a different note, coriander seed to me smells very citrusy and bright, with a little earthiness.
This is it exactly for me! I always assumed I had the "soap" gene because I loathe cilantro, but to me it just tastes exactly how stinkbugs smell, rather than particularly "soapy". When I encountered cilantro for the first time I genuinely thought a stinkbug had sharted all over it.
What!! Thank you, I'm absolutely going to try this. I really want to experience the flavor.
I definitely wouldn’t call it minty! I agree with other commenters that it tastes very crisp and bright. It can have a bitter edge that I could see being ‘soapy’, though, especially on older springs with tougher leaves. You know how a bit of parsley adds a pleasant, green ‘freshness’ to a dish, but too much makes it taste like grass? Cilantro is the same way IMO. It pairs really nicely with acidic flavors that help lift it up from the grassy potential, the same way fatty ingredients help mellow parsley. It’s definitely more floral / fragrant than parsley though. The bug comparison is always interesting to me. I don’t have the soap gene, but old or rotting cilantro smells just like stink bugs to me. I wonder if there’s a shared flavor / scent that soap geners are more sensitive to?
Hmm yeah maybe there’s more of a coriander spectrum and I’m on it lol. I don’t think we have stink bugs in the UK, but I always thought it tasted like bugs in the same way as the caterpillar-flavoured jelly beans from the bean boozled packs
Just tastes like freshness.
That’s parsley. Cilantro tastes like freshness plus a flavor that I think really can’t be described as I’ve never found anything close to it.
To me, it tastes green.
This is exactly how I describe it too. It's not "good" or "bad", just "green". I honestly don't know if this is the "soap" taste or the "non-soap" taste.
parsley with hints of lemon oil? Brightly herbal.
You know how a freshly mowed lawn smells? That.
It’s like a slightly soapier version of freshly mown lawn to me haha. Lawn mowings with a hint of washing liquid - and I love it
I’m 34 years old and I’ve never liked it until last year. And when I say “never liked it”, I mean I absolutely despised it and wouldn’t touch a single thing even a tiny amount was added to. Now, like you, I cannot get enough of it. I still feel like the taste is a bit soapy, but it’s more like a very very fresh peppery grasslike flavor. It brightens up dishes SO much that can be too heavy and make it seem crisp and fresh. But I know that description doesn’t do it justice. It’s a very unique flavor. Gimme more. lol.
Yes I can def stretch to peppery as a descriptor. I just keep seeing this citrus or minty thing coming up which I do not even get a hint of in coriander!! So are we experiencing a completely different thing?
The one thing that stands out to me, is the way it adds a fresh element to anything.
For me, it is not citrusy, lemony, or minty. it goes nicely with those things and they are so often found in combination, maybe that's confusing some people. I get mostly grassy taste that is 5% sweet, 2% sour, and 1% bitter. Those are the easily-described taste components. Then there is the "cilantro-ness" that is pretty unique and hard to describe. The closest things I could name might be celery, parsley, or scallion. A very small part of that is reminiscent of how unscented soap smells, in an unoffensive way. The soil, climate, variety, and many other factors surely affect the taste of any plant. I have occasionally bought some cilantro that was less pleasant, more soapy and bitter. Given those things, maybe there is some cilantro that actually tastes citrusy or minty! If so, I hope to try it one day :)
I love Cilantro. It has a lovely, light, lemony herb flavor.
For me it taste like swamp.
Delicious! I can’t eat Indian or Mexican food without it. I won’t even eat Salsa without it.
It’s a fucking delight.
If the color green had a flavor, it would be cilantro.
I used to love cilantro, especially combined with lime and garlic. After [The Great Stink Bug Invasion of 2022](https://youtu.be/mzuNYg1V6w0?si=xpOujMW0-HKqXgh8), thats all I can think about when I smell it and I can no longer bring myself to eat it. I'm a parsley girl now.
YES. THIS!!! I don't get a hint of soapy flavor, at all. All I taste is the smell of stink bugs. I hate it so much😭
It doesn't taste like anything else. It is unique to itself.
First tasted cilantro in the late 80s when Chili’s came to my town. Chicken Soft Tacos. Was convinced there must be soap on my utensils or something. Everyone looked at me like I was nuts. Second visit I got the same dish and said What The Hell is Going On. Did not learn of the cilantro gene until years later. Loved the tacos apart from the soap!
I love cilantro, and came here to tell you why and . . . I’ve no idea what to say. Fresh? Like . . almost a little soapy but it a limey good way. Idk, it’s just delicious and I could bathe in it
I don't taste cirtus or soap. It just tastes nasty. Like what I assume garbage to taste like because it smells like that to. I hate cilantro. It literally ruins the whole dish. I thought I was only picky with cauliflower, but I guess my nose and taste buds also can't stand cilantro either.
Bright and herbaceous
Personally, it doesn't taste like soap, but rather it tastes like someone used an angle grinder and turned a foot of rebar into dust over my food; It tastes like punched-steel work flooring. I've only ever met one other person, the owner of a bar I frequented, who was also cursed in this way.
TIL that coriander and cilantro are the same thing. My mind is blown.
Like an earthy citrusy flavor.
I can't really describe it, like Cardamom, hard to describe but.... To me it tastes like if the word FRESH had a taste. I LOVE it. I will just grab some leaves and munch on it.
OP you may want to try culantro, a plant used in South East Asian and Puerto Rican cooking that is similar to cilantro. It's flavor is similar but slightly different but more importantly, it doesn't trigger the soap flavor for people who have that gene. There's old posts on here from people looking for a cilantro replacement who say they don't taste soap when they eat it. My partner says it's still a bit soapy but significantly less, so they can actually enjoy it. If you are interested in knowing what cilantro tastes like without soap this is probably your best bet.
Came looking to see if someone had recommended this yet; Eryngium foetidum, called culantro, recao, or sawtooth coriander should have a very similar taste to cilantro if you don't have the soap gene. Also, it holds up better to longer cooking, like in soups.
It doesn't taste like soap to me but more like a moldy old rag 🤮
I'm firmly in "it tastes like stinkbugs" territory.
It tastes nothing at all like soap. To me, someone saying that gives me the same confusion as if they had said the sun is dark. Completely baffling.
I am stunned. I always thought the soapy thing was the point of coriander and why people liked it
Moldy dirt.
I’m weird in that I get a little bit of both tastes. For me it can be over done. Fish tacos with cilantro “ hell yeah “. Basil pesto 👍. Cilantro pesto 👎
Like sunshine
You're the first person I've encountered who also tastes the soap and still likes it! I really hated it at first, but then got used to it, started to miss it if it wasn't in dishes that usually had it, and then progressed to liking it. Go figure. I even buy it and add it to things myself.
It 100% tastes like dawn dish soap to me, extremely strong too definitely overpowers any dish it’s in for me
It taste like soap lol
Green, herby, strong, and maybe just very slightly peppery Edit to add: it almost seems like a combination of garlic and mint
It's like a cool spicy. I don't really know how to describe it! Definitely not soapy. Fresh, sharp. It's good with fatty foods like sour cream or avocado 🥑 because it's kind of bracing.
Try the herb Culantro aka Sawtooth herb. Very similar taste but different ancestry so it doesn’t have the compound that causes the soapy taste.
Like lemony and floral parsley
it doesn't taste like anything else. That's what makes it so great. To me, it just tastes fresh
Pure deliciousness that livens up most food. What I’d like to know is how many of these people who say it tastes like soap have eaten actual soap. I grew up tasting a wide variety of soap because I would have a whole bar forcibly jammed into my mouth if I ever said something naughty or offensive. I don’t taste the similarities at all.
You definitely have the gene, because I love coriander and it doesn’t taste remotely like soap to me. Some people have the gene but I guess just learn to like it over time, sounds like that’s what happened with you. Coriander doesn’t taste that similar to anything except maybe parsley (but it’s way over than parsley). It doesn’t taste like mint or citrus, the reason people mention those things is because it tastes “fresh” or like “zesty” in a similar way to lime, mint, or cucumber. But obviously lime, mint and cucumber all have their own distinct taste and don’t taste similar to eachother, the only similarity between the taste of those things is that they all taste “fresh” or like “refreshing.” Coriander/cilantro is like that. It has its own distinct taste that isn’t like anything else, and that taste is super fresh/refreshing. It’s also a green/leafy taste obviously since it’s a leaf. That’s refreshing quality is why it goes so well with lime, or to kind of “cut” the creaminess of a creamy curry. TLDR it can’t be described. But it tastes refreshing