Science Explains Why Cilantro Tastes Like Soap For Certain People

It's like washing your mouth out with soap!

When people say they hate cilantro, they often attribute this food feeling to a soapy aftertaste. Thanks to a video from SciShow, we finally know why cilantro tastes like soap for some 4-14 percent of the population.

“How cilantro tastes to you has a lot to do with your genes,” says SciShow’s Hank Green. He explains that after conducting a few separate studies, scientists were able to pin down most cilantro haters as people with a shared group of olfactory-receptor genes, called OR6A2, that pick up on the smell of aldehyde chemicals. Aldehyde chemicals are found in both cilantro and soap. Uh, yummy?

If you are one of those anti-cilantro folks, at least you know that it’s not really your fault and you can blame your parents. To avoid that soapy taste in your dishes, we suggest swapping parsley for cilantro.

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