Supertasters

How it works

Taste buds sit inside small bumps on the tongue called fungiform papillae. Supertasters have more of these papillae per square centimetre than other people¹. More papillae means more taste buds, and more taste buds means stronger signals from the same food.

The clearest difference is in bitterness. Scientists test for it with two harmless chemicals, PTC and PROP. To a non-taster, paper soaked in PROP tastes like paper. To a supertaster it is intensely bitter¹. The response is controlled mostly by the gene TAS2R38, which builds a bitter receptor. The PAV version of the gene tastes; the AVI version does not². Two copies of PAV plus a high papillae count gives a supertaster.

The effect goes beyond bitterness. Supertasters tend to find chilli hotter, sweet food sweeter, and fatty food more unpleasant¹. They often avoid bitter vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and kale, and they use more salt, probably because salt masks bitterness¹. Women are more likely to be supertasters than men¹.

How common it is

About 25% of people are supertasters, 50% are medium tasters, and 25% are non-tasters¹. The split varies between populations.

Try it

The reliable test uses PROP paper strips. A rough home version counts papillae.

1. Put a drop of blue food colouring on the tip of your tongue and spread it with a cotton bud. The tongue takes up the dye but the papillae mostly do not, so they show as pale pink dots.
2. Place a paper hole-punch reinforcement ring, about 6 mm across, flat on the blue area.
3. Count the pink dots inside the ring using a mirror and a good light, or take a photo.
4. Around 30 or more dots suggests a supertaster. Around 15 or fewer suggests a non-taster¹.

History and culture

The chemist Arthur Fox discovered PTC taste blindness by accident in 1931. Powder he was handling blew across the lab. A colleague complained it tasted bitter. Fox tasted nothing³. The psychologist Linda Bartoshuk coined the term supertaster in the early 1990s¹.