You can reframe your brain to think “I have strong food preferences” instead of the immature palate thing. Fish and fine cheeses show you aren’t the most immature (my in laws are, ha!)

Anonymous wrote:
You're just like all the other Americans, OP. Bland, sugar, fat, salt. Most learned this as children, in the days of rice cereal, and most perpetuate this as adults because they just go for what's easy and available.

This area makes you think everyone has a more subtle and discriminating taste, but really, most of the US is like you.

Funny. European DH doesn't drink black coffee or eat dark chocolate or any veg or fruit with anything like spice or bitterness (at least 20 food items like strong cheeses, seafood, ginger, courgette, mushrooms, cinnamon, blueberries, etc.). I drink min 4 cups of black coffee per day, eat all veg, fruit, spices, and pungent cheeses. There are only 2 things that make me gag: eggs and mayo.

Anonymous wrote:Agree about coffee. When I have to meet someone at Starbucks I get a hot water and pay for it as it it were coffee.

So you don't like any of the other drinks they have? Cocoa? Tea? Lemonade? I mean that's fine if not but I wouldn't waste money on hot water.

Anonymous wrote:I am 45 and I have an immature palate. Here are the food items I do not eat/can't stand:

-Coffee--too bitter
-Alcohol--too bitter
-Olives--too salty and bitter
--Dark chocolate--too bitter
--Tea--too bitter
--Mint--too strong
--Nuts--can't stand the taste/texture of all nuts
--Spices--too strong, can't even handle red pepper flakes, can't do spicy food at all

I do like all sorts of exotic cheeses though, and eat almost all fruit and vegetables, as well as most seafood. I don't drink any alcohol. I only eat milk chocolate. For beverages, I mainly drink juice because I like sweet drinks.

Why am I like this? I'm definitely somewhat of a picky eater.

Are you interested in changing your tastes? If so, there are olives that are neither salty nor bitter. You can add milk or cream and sugar to coffee and tea. You can get dark-ish chocolate. You can try smoked paprika instead of red pepper flakes. I don’t have any suggestions for the nuts because there is such a wide range of tastes and textures in nuts and seeds that if you don’t like any of them, than that just leaves more for those of us who like them quite a lot.

As to why you’re like this, I don’t know. Probably some of it is lack of exposure to mid-range tastes. So jumping from milk chocolate to extra dark instead of trying increasingly dark chocolate that’s also mixed with fruit or caramel to balance out the bitterness. If you’re not interested in changing your tastes, well, don’t. People like me would love to trade some of our more exotic moldy cheeses for your unappreciated dark chocolate and macadamia nuts.

Anonymous wrote:
You're just like all the other Americans, OP. Bland, sugar, fat, salt. Most learned this as children, in the days of rice cereal, and most perpetuate this as adults because they just go for what's easy and available.

This area makes you think everyone has a more subtle and discriminating taste, but really, most of the US is like you.

The bigotry comes out. Nice.