Taste

That morning shot of espresso probably tastes better in an Italian, thick-walled cup than in a burn-your-fingers paper one, reports an April study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "People always say wine tastes better in crystal glasses than in plastic glasses," says lead author Aradhna Krishna, marketing professor at the University of Michigan. "Rationally, the feel of a container should not affect taste."

In the coffee smackdown, it was yuppie Starbucks versus Ronald McDonald. And the clown won. Consumer Reports magazine said Friday that its tasters found McDonald's coffee to be "decent and moderately strong," with "no flaws," and that the Starbucks brew "was strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open." The March issue of the influential magazine advises, "Try McDonald's, which was cheapest and best." But does Seattle-based Starbucks have grounds for protest?

If you can't stand black coffee, chances are good that you also turn up your nose at bitter-tasting grapefruit juice, broccoli, spinach, green tea or soy products. You may be a genetic "super-taster" -- with more specialized taste buds on the tip of your tongue than the average person. For you, tasting foods can be the equivalent of feeling objects with 50 fingers instead of five -- due to tiny genetic differences you share with fellow super-tasters. The super-taster story goes back decades.

A part of the brain that helps regulate taste may play a role in anorexia nervosa. Using functional MRIs, researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Pittsburgh measured activity in the brains of 32 women, while the women tasted sugar and distilled water. Half of the women had recovered from anorexia; the other half had never had the eating disorder.

Researchers have identified a protein that lets people detect sour tastes, a sense scientists still don't fully understand. Researchers at UC San Diego led by neuroscientist Charles Zuker isolated a protein called PKD2L1. It is found in cells different from those known to let humans detect other tastes, such as sweetness and bitterness. The group altered mice so that they lacked PKD2L1 cells -- and the mice were unable to detect sour tastes.

There are rare humans who can taste their words, literally. Now a group of British scientists is trying to figure out how this unusual cross talk occurs in the brain. Julia Simner of the University of Edinburgh and Jamie Ward of University College London identified 10 people who can taste words -- a sensory experience that is as real to that person as Bolognese sauce over spaghetti sprinkled with hot pepper. Only there is no food. And the word has nothing to do with Italy.

GREAT article ["L.A. Brew, Worldly Taste," March 1]! Thanks for continuing the spread of the word on great beer! GREG KOCH \o7Stone Brewing Co. Escondido \f7

Scooby got his due Thursday, as the governor signed into law a requirement that antifreeze have a bitter taste to deter dogs from lapping it up. Scooby, a golden retriever from Bernalillo, N.M., had to be destroyed in 2003 after drinking the poisonous liquid. His death prompted an Albuquerque ordinance a year ago, and now the statewide requirement. "Scooby's Law is now official," Gov. Bill Richardson said at a ceremony in his office.