eli5: What is it about coffee and beer that makes people love both so much as adults but hate them as kids ?

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I am personally not a big beer lover, but I do dig some beer with good meat. However, I am an avid espresso lover. As a kid I hated both, especially coffee.

Frankly speaking, I would expect someone who first drinks either of those drinks to not really like their taste. Somehow, I still can’t do without at least 4 shots of espresso a day.

Is it a social thing ? An awareness(caffeine) thing ?

In: Biology

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Both coffee and beer are bitter drinks. We naturally dislike bitter tastes. This is an instinct we have devolped because rotten things are often very bitter as well. However because there are a lot of healthy food which is also bitter we are able to develop a taste for certain bitter foods. Essentially your primitive brain remembers the taste of the food from previously and ignores that it is bitter. But this only works if you can learn that the specific food is safe to eat.

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