Peole who have a lot of papillae-the bumps on our tongue, most of which house our taste buds-often find flavors overwhelming. They're "supertasters," and as such they add cream to their coffee and order food mild instead of spicy. Subtasters, on the other hand, have low papillae density and prefer their chicken wings "atomic." Individual taste, however, isn't simply about papillae; it also has to do with our buds' ability to detect different molecules. Although our brains can recognize the same five tastes-bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami (savory)-the suite of chemicals that can trigger those signals varies from one person to the next. Alexander Bachmanov, a geneticist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, says that humans carry a range of 20 to 40 genes dedicated to bitter taste receptors. Different sensitivities to bitter tastes probably arose from evolutionary pressures in different parts of the world.
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