The post About 1 in 4 People Are ‘Supertasters’ — 7 Surprising Things Research Has Found first appeared on Crafting Your Home.
Imagine biting into a piece of broccoli and tasting a powerful bitterness that someone sitting next to you barely notices. Or drinking coffee that tastes intensely bitter while someone else describes it as smooth. These differences are not necessarily about personal preference. Some people genuinely perceive certain tastes more strongly than others.
They are often called “supertasters.” The term describes people who respond unusually strongly to certain taste compounds, particularly the bitter chemical 6-n-propylthiouracil, or PROP. According to the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), about 25% of Americans fall into the supertaster category used in classic PROP research, about 50% are medium tasters, and 25% cannot taste PROP. That figure should not be treated as a universal estimate for every population, because taste genetics vary among populations and researchers use different methods to define taster status.
So what makes a supertaster different?
Some Foods Can Taste Almost Unbearably Bitter
The most obvious difference is bitterness. Supertasters tend to report stronger bitterness from PROP and from a range of other bitter compounds. Classic research by Linda Bartoshuk and colleagues also found stronger responses to several other taste and oral sensations among supertasters.
That matters because many everyday foods contain naturally bitter compounds. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts contain glucosinolate-related compounds that interact with bitter taste receptors, including TAS2R38. Green tea and some other plant foods also contain bitter compounds that this sensory system can detect.
This does not mean every supertaster hates vegetables. Research results are mixed, and food choices involve far more than taste intensity. A strong biological response to bitterness can influence eating behavior, but it does not dictate it.
They Don’t Necessarily Have “More Taste Buds”
One popular explanation says supertasters simply have far more taste buds. The reality is more nuanced. Early studies found an association between supertasting and the density of fungiform papillae, the mushroom-shaped structures on the tongue that can contain taste buds. A 2003 study, for example, found that people classified as supertasters had higher fungiform papillae density and greater lingual tactile sensitivity than medium tasters and nontasters.
However, later research has questioned how consistently papillae density predicts taste sensitivity. A literature review found that studies differ substantially in how they count papillae and measure taste sensitivity. Factors such as age, sex, health, and measurement methods can also affect the results. That means “supertasters have more taste buds” is an oversimplification. Tongue anatomy may be part of the story, but it is not the whole explanation.
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A Single Gene Can Help Explain the Difference
One of the most interesting discoveries is that variation in a specific taste receptor gene can influence how people experience bitterness. TAS2R38 produces a G-protein-coupled receptor found in taste receptor cells. Its variants affect sensitivity to PTC and PROP. NCBI identifies PAV as the common taster-associated variant and AVI as the common nontaster-associated variant, although the genetics are more complicated than a simple two-category system.
The important point is that this is not a gene for “liking vegetables.” It is a gene involved in sensory detection. Whether a person actually chooses to eat a particular food depends on additional factors such as culture, previous experience, availability, habits, and the other flavors in the food.
Spicy Food Isn’t Technically a Taste — But It Can Feel More Intense
Here’s an especially interesting finding: supertasting research has also been associated with stronger sensations from oral irritants such as capsaicin, the compound responsible for the heat of chili peppers. Capsaicin does not activate a conventional taste receptor the way sugar activates sweet-taste pathways. The burning sensation involves the trigeminal sensory system, which detects chemical irritation and temperature-related sensations.
So if spicy food feels dramatically different from one person to another, taste genetics may be part of the broader sensory picture. But it would be misleading to say that being a supertaster automatically makes someone unable to tolerate spicy food.
Their Food Choices May Be Different
Taste sensitivity can influence what people enjoy eating, particularly when foods contain strong bitter compounds. Several studies have linked PROP sensitivity to preferences for foods such as coffee, cruciferous vegetables, and certain fats. For example, a study of 121 young women found that greater PROP sensitivity was associated with lower acceptance of coffee, cruciferous vegetables, tart citrus fruit, dark breads, and some fats.
Perception and preference are not the same thing. A person can perceive bitterness very strongly and still enjoy a bitter food. More recent large-scale genetic research also suggests that TAS2R38 variants are associated with some differences in food preferences and consumption, but the relationships are specific rather than universal. A 2025 phenome-wide study using UK Biobank data examined up to 445,779 people of European ancestry and found associations between bitter-sensitive TAS2R38 variants and several food preferences and intake measures. The authors also emphasized that the relationships between TAS2R38, diet, and health remain complex.
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Being a Supertaster Doesn’t Automatically Mean Being Healthier or Less Healthy
This is where the science needs particularly careful interpretation. Because supertasters may perceive bitter foods more intensely, researchers have investigated whether they eat fewer vegetables or have different risks for obesity and other health outcomes. But studies have produced mixed results. A study of young adults published in Appetite found no significant differences in BMI or energy intake between PROP nontasters, medium tasters, and supertasters. The researchers also found no broad differences in bitter-food consumption that the supertaster hypothesis might have predicted.
But an association does not establish that taste sensitivity causes a particular health outcome. Diet, socioeconomic factors, culture, age, sex, smoking, food availability, and many other variables can influence both food choices and health. The safest conclusion, then, is that taste biology can influence eating behavior, but it does not determine a person’s health destiny.
“Supertaster” Is More Complicated Than the Label Suggests
The final surprise may be that no single perfect test exists for being a supertaster. PROP and PTC testing have been widely used, but researchers have also investigated alternative approaches, including measurements of taste intensity, oral sensitivity, and thermal tasting. A major review of two decades of supertasting research concluded that the phenomenon extends beyond PROP bitterness and may involve broader differences in taste, oral sensation, and even retronasal smell.
Researchers also point out that different testing methods do not always classify people in exactly the same way. The relationship between fungiform papillae density, taste sensitivity, and genetic variants is not straightforward enough to reduce the phenomenon to a single number or gene. That is why the term is best understood as a useful scientific description of unusually strong sensory responses rather than as a rigid biological category.
Key Takeaways
Supertasters offer a fascinating example of how biology can shape an everyday experience that most people take for granted.
The strongest evidence shows that people vary substantially in taste sensitivity and that genetic differences in bitter-taste receptors, particularly TAS2R38, help explain some of that variation. Supertasters can experience PROP and other bitter compounds more intensely, and research suggests that their broader oral sensory experience can sometimes extend to sweetness, saltiness, acidity, and oral irritation.
But the popular story is more complicated than “one in four people have extra taste buds and therefore hate vegetables.” Taste perception emerges from genes, receptors, tongue anatomy, nerves, environment, and experience. Food preferences are influenced by those sensory differences but are never determined by them alone.
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