How Do You Acquire an "Acquired Taste"?

[Michie]

There’s a reason bleu cheese, olives, and wasabi don’t appear on kids' menus: All three ingredients have assertive flavors that would turn off most children with functioning taste receptors. But something interesting happens after several years of development—many of the same kids that used to gag at anything bitter or funky start to accept, or actively seek out, those same bold flavors in their diets. This change has nothing to do with maturing taste buds. Rather, it can be explained by the purely psychological phenomenon of acquired taste.

Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, defines acquired taste as any taste that humans aren’t predisposed to like. "You're starting out with a little library of innate preferences and aversions," he tells Mental Floss. "So most of the rest of what you have are acquired likes and dislikes."

Continued below.
How Do You Acquire an "Acquired Taste"?

 

[Der Alte]

I don't know but for the first 29 years of my life I detested raw cabbage e.g. cole slaw. Suddenly in '69 got a craving for cole slaw.

 

[Shane R]

My wife hated some of my lunch meat selections. She thought olive loaf and p&p loaf were disgusting products that should not even be made! She didn't mind head cheese though.