Taste is an unusual sense. It is acknowledged that people will taste things
differently. Things that I like to taste may well be things you hate to taste.
We recognize that taste is a matter of opinion and not a matter of fact. We
even go as far as to say that other opinions (concerning art, music, etc) are
'matters of taste' when we mean that people will experience them in different
ways.
This is quite different than, for example, the sense of sight. We generally
expect that if we see something as red, so will everyone else. Of course,
there are those who are color blind, but we see that as a deficiency and not
an aspect of being 'normal'. Healthy people are expected to se the same colors
while they are not expected to taste the same tastes.
Of course, there are some tastes that people uniformly see as the same. Honey is
sweet, lemons are sour, etc. But there are some that taste broccolli as bitter
and others that do not. There are those who find the taste of vinegar as overpowering
while others can almost drink it out of the bottle.
What is interesting is that we have found *some* reasons for these differences
in taste. The taste receptors in our tongues and palates vary from person to person.
The responsiveness to different chemicals varies and so the signals the tastebuds
send to our brains varies. A 'super taster' has different taste buds than others do.
So what does this say about 'reality'? Since ALL of our information about the world
comes from our senses and we *know* that the senses can vary from person to person,
how do we determine what is 'real' and factual as opposed to 'a matter of taste'?
Do we simply forge 'consensus reality' from those sensations where we all agree and
say the rest are 'opinions'? Do we accept differences as 'personal realities'? And
how can we (can we) know anything about what is really 'out there'?
What tastes do you like that many others dislike? What do you dislike that others like?
For me, I dislike tomatoes and vinegar and really like sweet foods. My wife is
exactly the opposite. What is your experience?