Sunday, November 25, 2018

We shouldn't like coffee but we do

As most coffee drinkers know, coffee can have a bitter taste to it that initially can turn a person away from being an avid coffee drinker. If you think about it, most people don't like coffee the first time they drink it, it is an acquired taste. According to a study done by North Western University, people who tend to drink more coffee actually are tasters (genetically) for the bitterness in the coffee. When I initially read this article I was slightly confused because as most would think, why would the people who taste for bitterness in coffee drink it more frequently? According to the study, people tend to acquire the ability to detect caffeine (the bitter taste associated with it) and learn to a positive reinforcement that is elicited by the caffeine like stimulation. The study also showed the this correlated to other bitter things like tea and even alcohol in particular red wine.



References:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181115104603.htm

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/15/667973420/buzz-buzz-bitter-tasters-like-coffee-better

1 comment:

  1. I really enjoyed this article, and I think it's funny that people who detect the bitter taste actually are more probable to drinking more coffee. The positive reinforcement linked to caffeine makes sense and I actually learned about things like that in one of my Psychology classes as well so it was cool to see another example.

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