What is the most unusual flavour?
January 8, 2020 6:34 PM   Subscribe

Most flavours that we taste are related to other, similar flavours. So there are fruity flavours, meaty flavours, nutty flavours, dairy-product flavours, and so on. But there are some sui generis flavours that don't seem to fit into one of these large categories — the blue bits of blue cheese, quinine, Marmite/Vegemite, liquid smoke, and other more interesting examples from outside Western food culture. Which of these one-of-a-kind flavours is the most one-of-a-kind?
posted by dontjumplarry to Food & Drink (61 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know that I agree with the premise of the question, but if I'm following correctly, I think I'd go with Szechuan pepper.
posted by pompomtom at 6:43 PM on January 8, 2020 [20 favorites]


I feel like galangal root might fit this bill. You don't know you're missing it from Thai food until it's not there.

Natto also probably fits what you're thinking.
posted by brookeb at 6:53 PM on January 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


Phu quoc.
posted by clavdivs at 6:55 PM on January 8, 2020


Cilantro?
posted by wats at 6:58 PM on January 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


Salt.
posted by Grandysaur at 7:04 PM on January 8, 2020 [10 favorites]


Durian?
posted by obstinate harpy at 7:05 PM on January 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


If not salt, the thing I use most often that I think fits your description is garlic: I can’t substitute anything else to get the taste of it.
posted by sallybrown at 7:08 PM on January 8, 2020 [6 favorites]


For some reason when I think of "a flavor I can't describe like anything else because it tastes like itself", I think of tamarind.
posted by nakedmolerats at 7:09 PM on January 8, 2020 [8 favorites]


Maybe alcohol?

I don't think it's Marmite/Vegemite. For me, those fall into the same general realm as hoisin sauce, Worcestershire sauce, beef bouillon, and soy sauce.
posted by cranberrymonger at 7:32 PM on January 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


Indian pickled mango
Branston pickle
Miracle berry
Dried squid
Fermented black bean paste
Miso paste
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:41 PM on January 8, 2020


Bay leaves.
posted by wwax at 7:43 PM on January 8, 2020


Truffle (in oil or salt or whatever) is like this for me -- somehow both sharp and thickly pungent in a way I can't imagine imitating.
posted by Pwoink at 8:00 PM on January 8, 2020 [5 favorites]


Some Asian candies have a camphor flavour. The only thing I could imagine tasting similar would be a urinal puck.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:11 PM on January 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


The original Victory V cough lozenges with licorice, diethyl ether and chloroform(!). It's like freshman chem lab, in your mouth.

Musk flavored lifesavers are probably a close second.

Maybe natto?
posted by sourcequench at 8:16 PM on January 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


"most unusual" is going to be different for people living in different places. But some distinctive flavors, you can decide if any of these meet your criterion:

mints? wintergreen, spearmint, peppermint? A lot of compound flavors in e.g. sodas like root beer, involve a mint flavor that's kind of blended in there.

maple

saffron

anise/licorice
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:41 PM on January 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


I'd have to go with Scandinavian licorice with the insane ammonium chloride flavour - who likes that??? It's a distinctive taste.

(I realize the answer is "some people")
posted by GuyZero at 8:54 PM on January 8, 2020 [6 favorites]


surströmming
hákarl
cornflakes
posted by scruss at 9:06 PM on January 8, 2020


Not sure if this counts, but miracle fruit
posted by rjacobs at 9:14 PM on January 8, 2020


I also came to say cilantro. And I would agree with some others posted: maple, licorice/anise, vanilla, etc., possibly mint, though one could call those "minty" or "fresh" or "cool" flavours since there are multiple kinds of mint.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:14 PM on January 8, 2020


Tamarind was my first thought.
posted by itsflyable at 9:43 PM on January 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


If artificial flavors are allowed, Coke and cool ranch Doritos have je ne sais quoi flavor elements. Sure there are similar products, but they both have a unique taste that seems to avoid both description and imitation.
posted by matrixclown at 9:54 PM on January 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


Hakarl. Nothing else has that sweet pure ammonia flavor!
posted by praemunire at 10:19 PM on January 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


Black salt, kala namak from India not the Hawaiian type of black salt. It has sulphur in it and adds a very distinctive taste to recipes that you can't get any other way I know of.

Also dulse is pretty distinct.
posted by fshgrl at 10:34 PM on January 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


I second Gotanda's grape soda / dimetapp idea-- nothing in the world tastes like artificial grape flavor. also, banana flavored candy (like now & laters or laffy taffy.) it does not taste like a banana, it tastes like nothing ever invented. (i'm not sure if artificial flavors count for this question, but seriously, fake grape and fake banana taste like they are from outer space, to me. in a good-ish way though)
posted by capnsue at 10:45 PM on January 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


Asafoetida in a lot of Indian food (aka hing). It's a strong-smelling, acrid, almost-sulpherous smell and I believe it's often used in dishes where onions and garlic are not permitted. All I know is that my Indian recipes taste bland and bad without it and that I can smell it in the closed container in the shops from two aisles over. Incidentally, it's supposed to help with lentil induced flatulence, but I've no idea if this works. Why take a chance?
posted by ninazer0 at 11:31 PM on January 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


The pith that forms between pecan shells and the nutmeats themselves has a unique and memorable flavor.

I used to save that stuff up when I ate pecans in the shell as a kid and eat it all at the end. It had a concentrated but somehow refreshing bitterness all its own.
posted by jamjam at 12:39 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) is a strong unusually chemical flavour. Also root beer, which I've heard described as 'cola with detergent in it' by people who tasted it for the first time as adults.
posted by frimble at 1:31 AM on January 9, 2020


Vanilla
posted by STFUDonnie at 3:18 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Quinine is bitter. Marmite is salty and umami.

I'd say that ginger tastes like nothing else and it's a flavour that's unrelated to other flavours. Unusual is not a good word... that just depends on what you're used to, doesn't it?
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:29 AM on January 9, 2020


Bubble gum? I've tried to describe what it tastes like before with no success - it tastes like ... bubble gum.
posted by DingoMutt at 3:52 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Teaberry. You may know it as the flavor of Pepto-Bismol.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:11 AM on January 9, 2020


ginger tastes like nothing else and it's a flavour that's unrelated to other flavours

Unusual is not a good word... that just depends on what you're used to, doesn't it?


I heartily agree with the second sentence, but it almost illustrates the inaccuracy of the first - ginger is absolutely related to other "hot" flavors, there are many different kinds of ginger and other plants that are called ginger, and it's on a spectrum with galangal, fingerroot, and turmeric.

Everything we can taste is on a spectrum. For truly unusual flavors (that can still be tasted) I think you probably have to go outside food into the realm of the toxic, like crude oil or the inside of a glow stick (both of which I can strongly advise against tasting, yuk).
posted by aspersioncast at 5:10 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Moxie? For that delicious sip of tar....
posted by papergirl at 5:28 AM on January 9, 2020


Saffron was my first thought.
Shiso (Perilla frutescens) is another.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:53 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Shiso leaf
Sumac
Blackstrap Molasses
Cardamom
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 5:59 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Sesame is actually a pretty unique flavor. Can’t offhand think of anything that tastes like it.
posted by panama joe at 6:35 AM on January 9, 2020


There are some distinctive artificial flavors too like so-called grape soda. What is that even?

Believe it or not, it’s based on the very real flavor of Concord grapes. See also : Manichewitz, grape jelly, various grape-flavored candies.

I know. I totally flipped the first time I ate an actual Concord grape. I was like, “so THIS is what all those things are trying to taste like???” Yeah it’s a real fruit, and it really does taste like that, we just don’t usually eat them because they’ve got a thick skin and are kinda slimy on the inside. Not quite what most of us are looking for in a grape (or a friend).
posted by panama joe at 6:39 AM on January 9, 2020 [9 favorites]


If you're having a big party/function in Nigeria, say for upwards of 300 people, you will hire caterers and it doesn't matter how sophisticated this party is, the caterers are going to cook outside in huge pans on open wood fires. That provides the special most delicious party flavoring: wood smoke. It's not a food taste and thus not related to any other food, it's an enhancement. Neither is it some kind of barbecue taste, which is mostly sugar anyway. I know over here you can get liquid smoke but it's not the same at all. Jollof rice cooked on an open fire outside has something really special and fresh going on with it.

Another thing I've eaten that's unlike anything else is wild rainforest honey. The difference is indescribable. The taste is of a fairly rough not terribly sweet honey (with fragments of leg and wing and wax in it) and eating it makes you feel exhilarated. I can't explain it at all. The taste isn't that different but the effect of eating it - you feel as if you've had some kind of elixir. It's subtle, like quiet happiness.

Somebody gave us a 50cl bottle of the stuff from the market and I had it with ogi for breakfast over about 3 weeks, so not a one-off tasting. Since then if I see anything labelled 'rainforest honey' I will try it but there's been nothing like that murky, gathered by a traditional hunter, rare in the market, in an old recycled drinks bottle and not particularly clean stuff.
posted by glasseyes at 6:41 AM on January 9, 2020 [7 favorites]


I totally flipped the first time I ate an actual Concord grape.

100% me, this summer, at the farmers market.

Im struggling with the framing because an inability to describe a flavor is not neccessarily a sign of the flavors unique-ness, its a question of the tasters ability to convey that taste in relatable terms to someone else. Hakarl isnt really hard to describe - it tastes like rotten in a weird mix of dairy rotten like too old funky cheese and sea-rotten like some fish that should have been thrown out a couple days ago.

Ma-La (the flavor associated with the taste of szechuan peppercorns) is probably a good bet - its literally numbness, a sensation and not a flavor. I gave some to my cousin a year or two ago and she said immediately "i cant tell if thats good or trying to hurt me" and i asked her to imagine giving someone totally unexposed to chilies even a milder serrano, and why wouldnt they have the same experience (the pain vs flavor experience, not comparing the spice of green peppers to szechuan peppercorns).

Both hing and black salt have a flavor id describe as fart-like, but in a good way. They arent things you'd eat on their own but when combined with other things they round out the effect. I would say that you mostly notice their absence (like why a lot of attempts at indian food by unfamiliar folks dont taste quite right).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:52 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Black salt to me is a sulfur flavor. (Just googled it--it's literally sulfur.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:06 AM on January 9, 2020


mmmm Tasmanian Peppercorns. So strange, so wonderful, and turns everything purple.

You might like the book, The Flavor Bible... its a lot about flavor pairing and has been really fun to learn with.
posted by wowenthusiast at 7:31 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


And also this book, The Flavor Thesaurus.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:45 AM on January 9, 2020


I'd say licorice and not in a good way.
posted by roadrunner9 at 7:46 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I suspect this will depend a lot on the individual. All the examples mentioned in the post taste pretty similar to each other and lots of other things (charred meat, mushrooms, natto, miso) that I just think of as umami.

I find the idea of cilantro very surprising; to me, it has a very subtle smell somewhere between alfalfa sprouts and cabbage and yet it tastes like nothing at all. It took me a long time to realize it was added to meals for some reason other than green decoration.

On my list is eggplant, which tastes like licking a 9V battery. I suspect I'm somewhat allergic to it - if I eat more than a tiny amount, my entire mouth goes numb - but the experience is interesting, so I continue to eat it often. I've learned that most people don't have the same reaction. That's not exactly a flavor, though.

I'd put a group of dried roots - valerian, burdock, some things in jars from the Asian market I can't name - on the candidate list. Maybe wormwood belongs in the same category. They're bitter and earthy, but there's also something else subtle and interesting added to that. Also, perhaps, celery.

Copper, e.g., sucking on a penny, is the most unique taste I can think of. It's not entirely unlike dark green vegetables, but it's not actually the same. I doubt that counts as a food.
posted by eotvos at 7:59 AM on January 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


(To be clear, quinine is in a different category, for me, from the other examples.)
posted by eotvos at 8:04 AM on January 9, 2020


this is an impossible yet fun question.

It has to be Szechuan pepper because there's nothing like it (unless there is...?), right? Durian, natto, those scandy fish that you unearth after months and eat are in one family of rottenbutgood-tasting stuff; wasabi and the other horseradishes are all in a family...

maybe wormwood is a contender...? or is it part of an uberbitter family?
posted by Don Pepino at 8:55 AM on January 9, 2020


It has to be Szechuan pepper because there's nothing like it (unless there is...?)

There is. I first encountered it in Japanese cuisine as sansho, but members of the family are used throughout Southeast and East Asian cuisines. Ooh and in fact since sesame was brought up I should point out that most of them contain sesamin.

I'd argue that piperine has similar enough effects that calling it Sichuan pepper makes some sort of sense, as with the equally unrelated capsicums.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:20 AM on January 9, 2020


Red Vines
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:52 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Coconut, vanilla and pandan are probably on a flavour spectrum and are often used to describe each other, yet each is distinct and unlike the others at the same time.
posted by Rora at 10:42 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Black cardamom, which is totally different than green: camphor + smoky.
Seconding:
pandan/kewra/screw pine
kala namak/black salt
asafetida
posted by jocelmeow at 10:59 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Fresh cashew fruit. Not the nut, the fruit. Not only is the flavor quite different, the mouth-feel is unique. It's like your gums are getting pulled apart. It's not painful but it's certainly weird.
posted by Neekee at 11:07 AM on January 9, 2020


pandan is so delicious!
posted by Don Pepino at 12:08 PM on January 9, 2020


GuyZero! Salmiakki is dreamy 😍 But yeah, I suppose you need to grow up with it, to dig it.
posted by speakeasy at 12:30 PM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


If this qualifies, I don't think there's anything quite like eating an artichoke, mostly because of how it makes everything else taste (because of the cholorgenic acid and cynarin, maybe?).
I've never had anything else like it.
posted by bananana at 12:56 PM on January 9, 2020


There is a very specific, sickly saccharine taste I associate with syrupy medication. Cough syrup, liquid iron, the glucose test drink. The only foodstuff I know of that tastes the same is Dr Pepper, which - WHY

I also have had issues finding non-alcoholic things that taste like beer.
posted by divabat at 5:27 PM on January 9, 2020


(I recognise that beers themselves have distinct tastes - IPAs in particular have a very particular Hoppy taste that I'm not so fond of. I prefer either light beers or dark beers but I wish there was a way to have the flavour without the drunkenness!)
posted by divabat at 5:30 PM on January 9, 2020


I also have had issues finding non-alcoholic things that taste like beer.

Agreed. Someone once suggested I try making barley tea but that seemed a little complicated for not quite the flavor. At this point I would even take an attempt by La Croix at a slightly beer-favored sparkling water.
posted by sallybrown at 6:02 PM on January 9, 2020


OT: Beer covers a very broad range of flavours but, if you're looking, I'd search for German "alkoholfrei" beers. They're often not entirely non-alcoholic, but around 0.5% abv or less, and the Germans have been thinking about beer for quite a while. My apologies if you've already researched this area.
posted by pompomtom at 6:29 PM on January 9, 2020


Pompomtom: alas alcohol-free beers are not super common here and when they are available they're kinda pricey!
posted by divabat at 6:53 PM on January 9, 2020


Horehound.
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 8:50 PM on January 9, 2020


hydrangea tea is the strangest sweetest thing i've put in my mouth and it just broke my brain.
posted by zsh2v1 at 10:17 AM on January 10, 2020


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