Why don't I like raisins?

February 9, 2007 12:38 AM

Why don't I like raisins?

My whole family seems to be obsessed with raisins. They eat them by the box. Why don't I like them? I can eat them in cooked foods or even out of the box...but I really don't enjoy them.

Why?

posted by benji to Food & Drink (45 answers total)

I didn't really come to like raisins until health reasons meant I had to choose them as an alternative to sugary snacks; raisins aren't as delicious as M&Ms, but they're better for you. You do eat them, so it doesn't sound like you *dislike* them, but maybe you just have other things you like better.
posted by Rubber Soul at 12:45 AM on February 9, 2007

Maybe you are used to eating more sugary foods. If I drink a regular soft drink and then drink a Diet Dr Pepper, the diet drink tastes horrible. If I have not been drinking any sugary drinks or eating candy or anything similar, Diet Dr Pepper tastes really good to me. Perhaps you need to eat better food. Then you'll like the sweet (but not candy-sweet) raisins.

Or maybe you just don't like the same food as your family members like. Or maybe you are like my little cousin who when I offered him raisins replied with "that looks like my rabbits poop" and knocked them out of my hand.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 12:54 AM on February 9, 2007

You're crazy.

My little sister is the same way; she actually actively hates them, and also bananas. She comes from Fresno farming stock on one side so we take raisin-hating a bit personally.

Even my mom, who actually had a job counting grapes in the old San Joaquin as a teenager, doesn't like raisins in baked goods (she is of the opinion that they become intolerably puffy and/or "weird"). Me, I'll take a raisin any way I can get it.

Have you tried any fancier raisins? I don't like the ones in the box with the girl on them because I was brought up on my grandfather's raisins, which have a lot more flavor. The box ones taste like little dry sugar-nuggets unless you get a really fresh box. I bet your local fancy grocery store could enlighten you about gourmet raisins. My great-uncle hooked me up with some = raisins made from wine grapes once (I want to say cabernet but it was many years back) that were really intense, for example. Then you could impress your family with your newfound raisin enlightenment, and fit in at the family gatherings I'm picturing (which involve people sitting around a table, comatose with joy, raisins everywhere).

As a pro-raisin partisan I have to believe you have just been getting crummy raisins all your life, but my sister stands as a shining example of someone I know has definitely had good raisins and just isn't into it.
posted by crinklebat at 12:56 AM on February 9, 2007

It's possibly because each person prefers different foods. I would recommend trying a different food and seeing whether you enjoy that.
posted by welephant at 1:03 AM on February 9, 2007 [3 favorites]

Not everyone tastes food the same way. You might have a recessive gene in your taste system.... raisins may taste different to you than to the rest of your family.

You might, for instance, be a Supertaster. Or you might have something different that we just don't know about yet. It is damnably hard to quantify and experiment with a subjective experience like taste.

Or, perhaps, you had some terrible raisin trauma when young.... :-)
posted by Malor at 1:05 AM on February 9, 2007

Maybe the raisin-liking gene is dominant, your parents are both Rr and you didn't get it on either chromosome so you're rr and don't like them. :P (I know; it's almost certainly more complex than that... but taste preferences apparently do have a genetic component. Maybe you just didn't inherit the genes.)

If your whole family loves them, maybe you're just a bit sick of them.

Maybe it's the texture, not the taste--maybe you're more texture-oriented than them.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 1:11 AM on February 9, 2007

I agree with sleeplessunderwater. It's a texture thing. What is a raisin but a little wrinkled leathery nugget of eww? It could taste like liquid sex and I'd still hate them. Maybe there is some magical gourmet raisin out there that would make people like you and me see the light, but it would have to be pretty damn good to get past the shrivled horridness.
posted by brain cloud at 1:45 AM on February 9, 2007

I can't stand 'em, myself. And I hate walnuts and filberts. Different people like different things. Just because you don't like something and someone else does, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:24 AM on February 9, 2007

I don't mind them so long as they're covered in chocolate. That's the only way I can eat em. My family loves em as well. But then, I have different tastes on MOST foods than my family does... though I am very texture oriented as well.
posted by antifuse at 2:59 AM on February 9, 2007

I'm just going to say you don't like them because they suck. The same applies to bananas. The weird part for me though is I can handle either one as an ingredient in something, just not straight up.

Seriously, raisins bother me because they get stuck in my teeth and something natural shouldn't hang around in there like a jolly rancher after its been chewed and swallowed already. Bananas - well I love the flavor but to peel one open and eat it - never gonna happen. The slimyness and consistency conjures images of someone chewing it to a pulp in spitting it back into the peel or something.

Yes, I know it's weird to not like those two foods but in my own defense I'll eat virtually everything else put on the table (barring exotic stuff like deep-fried grasshoppers, etc.).
posted by jtoth at 3:00 AM on February 9, 2007

All my life I'd hated bananas. Nobody else I knew hated bananas. My banana hating bothered me and every now and again I'd try one just to find out whether I liked bananas yet, but I never did.

Then I started going out with the future ms. flabdablet. One day she offered me a bite of her banana, and I liked it, and I've liked bananas ever since.

So my advice to you is try being offered a handful of raisins by somebody you're madly in love with.
posted by flabdablet at 3:02 AM on February 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

God, this thread made me laugh. I saw the initial question on the front page and thought, "Nobody would seriously ask that question, would they? There must be something inside that I'm missing.

But no. Not at all. Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?! Are you seriously asking a bunch of random strangers on the internet why you don't like raisins? That's insane. I mean, there are times when I don't like a food and I consider why this might be the case (usually I chalk it up to texture), but I've never thought to myself, "Well, my own conclusion about this wildly subjective matter of my own personal tastes just really isn't cutting it--I wonder what a bunch of people who don't know me would surmise?"

Maybe you were gangraped by The California Raisins.
posted by The God Complex at 3:05 AM on February 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

Or maybe you got your hands on a pre-release version of California Raisins: The Grape Escape before it was cancelled and the experience traumatized you beyond all measure.
posted by The God Complex at 3:09 AM on February 9, 2007

It could taste like liquid sex and I'd still hate them.
If they tasted like liquid sex I'd almost certainly hate them. Not a flavor you want to take out of context.
posted by lostburner at 3:16 AM on February 9, 2007

Are you sure you've examined this subject from all angles? They're shaped a bit like a suppository for a reason. A connoisseur does not underestimate the gustatory subtleties associated with rectal absorption. Just try it. You'll change.
posted by peacay at 4:01 AM on February 9, 2007

I think your aversion to them in cooked foods, is because they add an inappropriate sweetness to many things, like couscous and meat dishes, for example.

Raisins in danish pastries don't blend effectively with the other flavors. I give a pass on them every time I see them.

Just my opinions, YMMV.
posted by Gordion Knott at 4:04 AM on February 9, 2007

I don't like them either, the taste is too sweet for me and I really can't stand the texture of dried fruits in general (I have a hang up on texture in food). I usually pick them out of my food and tell everybody I'm allergic.
posted by mummimamma at 4:06 AM on February 9, 2007

I hate them because they stick to my teeth, and my mom tried to pass them off as a 'treat' in the stinking little boxes with the girl on them, in school lunches. Barf!

OTOH: I love prunes, dates, and figs. Probably figs the best. But I suppose those don't stick to the teeth as bad.
posted by Goofyy at 4:23 AM on February 9, 2007

this is so very strange. despite considering myself a quintessential omnivore, there's one item i cannot stand to eat: raisins.

i've come up with an elaborate explanation for it, though: on some primal level, i must just be pissed off that whoever was handling the grapes left them out to dry instead of pressing them and getting around to making me some more wine already.
posted by garfy3 at 4:40 AM on February 9, 2007

Why don't I like raisins?
Because they're mummified grapes?

You probably simply don't experience the taste of raisins the same way the rest of your family does. Taste is just like vision or hearing in that individuals exists on a spectrum of perception. We really don't live in exactly the same world as any body else.

They have found that taste has all manner of genetic underpinning and that likely we needed hints for selecting foods that wouldn't kill us. Lots of research (see above) has explained why some people can't stand broccoli, maybe they just haven't gotten to raisins yet.

Personally, I loathe, with the heat of a thousand suns, every variation on butternut squash and it has everything to do with the texture/taste combo. My tongue simply refuses to let it pass into my body and I have gagged several times while attempting to rationalize the revoltingness away. My family thinks I'm insane, and the dish is still served at every Thanksgiving and they consume it with gusto. Freaks!
posted by nelleish at 4:59 AM on February 9, 2007

I dislike raisins; I love sultanas. Go figure. I think it's because the sultanas are juicier.
posted by corvine at 5:08 AM on February 9, 2007

They're bland and sticky and blech. That's why.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:27 AM on February 9, 2007

I pretty much hate raisins. I hate their texture. I hate how they taste like a headache feels. I hate how they sneak into perfectly innocent foods like oatmeal cookies, bagels, and trail mix.

I like craisins, and other dehydrated fruit.
posted by muddgirl at 5:28 AM on February 9, 2007

just eat Craisins.
posted by ZackTM at 5:56 AM on February 9, 2007

I think raisins are gross gross gross. I agree for me that it's probably a texture thing, because I feel a similar way (though not as strongly) against craisins.
posted by inigo2 at 6:03 AM on February 9, 2007

Nth texture. I don't like bananas or raisins because of texture.
posted by nimsey lou at 6:11 AM on February 9, 2007

Ditto on the gross. Finding a dried stem, too, in an otherwise leathery/goopy assemblage = not fun.

Surprisingly, though, I love them in brownies. You can't even taste their flavor or texture, but they do something amazing to the consistency. Really.
posted by asuprenant at 6:14 AM on February 9, 2007

muddgirl: don't forget carrot cake. Some sadist seems to think raisins belong there, too.

Nature's Candy MY ASS!
posted by contessa at 6:19 AM on February 9, 2007

My mom doesn't like them because, as she discovered when diapering babies, they go in raisins, but they come out grapes. So maybe that's it?
posted by macadamiaranch at 6:22 AM on February 9, 2007

Because your mom went through a health food phase when you were little, and she wouldn't let you eat any cookies or candy or junk food. Raisins were presented to you as "nature's candy", and you were a good little kid and so you ate box after box of raisins, even when kids in cafeteria around you had twinkies and oreos and chips ahoy. And then when your mom eased up on the health food, you found you couldn't eat a raisin without feeling kind of irritated and sad and powerless inside. Although nowadays you find you CAN enjoy a good oatmeal raisin cookie.... Oh wait - this is why I hate raisins.... sorry.
posted by chr1sb0y at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Maybe because your parents never exposed you to this in your formative years.
posted by staggernation at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2007

Because you are insane. Raisins are the only things that make carrot cake, couscous, and oatmeal cookies worth eating. I think you should seek medical help.
posted by dame at 6:43 AM on February 9, 2007

I think your aversion to them in cooked foods, is because they add an inappropriate sweetness to many things, like couscous and meat dishes, for example.

Actually, that's the only place I really like them. I don't have a strong aversion, but I prefer most desserts, trail mix, granola/energy bars, etc., without raisins. Maybe it's because in cooked dishes they rehydrate somewhat.
posted by staggernation at 6:44 AM on February 9, 2007

After his 288 mph crash, Richard Hammond developed a taste for celery, which he previously hated, but I would hesitate to suggest this as a possible therapy.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 6:47 AM on February 9, 2007

Until recently I HATED raisins, and referred to them as rotten grapes.

I still hate them by themselves, but I now can tolerate them in cookies, some cereals, and stuffing. The less you can taste the raisins, the more I like it.
It's the taste, they have an odd tartness that I am not into. I am not hard to please, I like mostly everything. Except raisins.
posted by bradn at 6:48 AM on February 9, 2007

Maybe you were gangraped by The California Raisins.

I read that as "GanGraped" at first.
posted by staggernation at 6:51 AM on February 9, 2007

I can see not liking raisins. But hating bananas?? That's crazy talk.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:51 AM on February 9, 2007

I have the same problem (if we may call it a problem :) - I'm the only one in my family who doesn't like raisins. They just taste too sweet to me. That's the only kind of sweets I don't like :)
posted by barmaljova at 7:15 AM on February 9, 2007

Just another vote against raisins. It's a texture thing for me to... not so much the chewy part, but there is often a grittiness that bothers me. I'll eat them in things... but there is no way in hell I would ever pop a handful of raisins in my mouth. I like other dried fruit.

And while I love bananas, I hate HATE melons. Any kind of melon. Since childhood. There is something in the flavor of melon that evokes rotting meat to me. It makes me sad, because melons are so beautiful and plentiful in summer.
posted by kimdog at 7:16 AM on February 9, 2007

Because when you chew them, they feel like bugs. Every time I eat a raisin, I think I am eating a cockroach. I am sure they don't taste the same at all. Well, mostly sure, I've never eaten a cockroach that I know of.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 7:19 AM on February 9, 2007

How has this thread survived to 40+ comments? I have never seen anything more chatfilteresque in my life.
posted by Miko at 7:37 AM on February 9, 2007

Seconding Miko: Sounds like "raisins suck, amirite?"
posted by Robert Angelo at 7:39 AM on February 9, 2007

I hate raisins, but not as much as I hate chatfilter about raisins.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:00 AM on February 9, 2007

De gustibus et coliribus non est disputandum.
posted by lodev at 8:17 AM on February 9, 2007

I don't like raisins, either. They're sticky, grainy, and they don't smell very good. They give them to you when you're a kid and tell you that you're supposed to enjoy them, but deep down you know that you're being suckered.
posted by Afroblanco at 8:29 AM on February 9, 2007