Are some people supertasters?

Yes. Some people really do taste more intensely than others, and scientists call the most sensitive ones supertasters. The word was coined by the psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, and it describes people whose sense of taste for certain flavours and foods is far more sensitive than average. It is not just a matter of being fussy or exaggerating: the effect appears to have an anatomical or biological basis.

The story started in a chemistry lab. One day a DuPont chemist was putting a chemical called PTC into a bottle when its dust flew around the laboratory. A colleague complained of a bitter taste, but the chemist, who was standing much closer, tasted nothing. He even tasted some of the crystals and insisted they were tasteless. His colleague tried some and found them extremely bitter. They had stumbled on a real difference between people: in 1931 it was found that some people find PTC bitter while others find it tasteless, and the ability proved to be heritable.

Later, Bartoshuk and her colleagues found that people who can taste the bitterness can be split again. Research suggests about 25% of people are non-tasters, 50% are medium tasters and 25% are supertasters. Supertasters tend to have more fungiform papillae, the small bumps that hold taste buds, and more pain receptors on the tongue. Today the view is that their sensitivity covers all taste qualities, not just bitterness. Being a supertaster is not clearly better or worse: no clear benefit has been established, and a strong reaction to bitterness may make some palatable foods less appealing.