Does Xylitol taste like garlic?

March 24, 2008 8:25 AM

I have read online that Xylitol is a sugar substitute that has absolutely no aftertaste and yet if I chew gum with Xylitol I get a very distinct garlicky taste in my mouth. Is it just me?
posted by yfatah to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

I have only tried a couple kinds of gum with Xylitol, and I noticed a weird taste too. I don't know that I would call it garlicky, though, but it was a decidedly not-sweet, not-minty taste. I never really associated it with the sweetener though...both types of gum were teeth-whitening gums, and I assumed it was the whitening agent that made it taste so weird. Was your gum of the tooth-whitening variety?
posted by tastybrains at 8:35 AM on March 24, 2008

I have seen it in Cookies. I was trying to restrict my sugar in-take and found cookies at a Whole Foods that were sweetened with this stuff. I did not taste any aftertaste. That was
my experience with Xylitol. I don't know about the gum.
posted by ChrisB48 at 8:38 AM on March 24, 2008

I know that "sweet" is one of the primary senses of taste, but it seems like each sweetening agent has its own baggage- combinations of other tastes that come along for the ride. A big marketing gimmic here in Texas is to sell "Dublin Dr. Pepper" which is produced in Dublin, Texas, using the old pre-corn syrup recipe that uses cane sugar as the sweetener. Some people swear they can tell a taste difference; other's can't. I suspect xylitol is similar. Some people cannot detect the background differences between its taste and other sweeteners, but you can.
posted by Doohickie at 9:56 AM on March 24, 2008

I get that too! About 5 minutes in, when the initial minty burst starts fading. I thought it was just me. I chew the Trident "less intense" variety, which I believe contains Xylitol, though I don't have any with me.
posted by Koko at 10:18 AM on March 24, 2008

I use xylitol to bake with and occasionally stir into my chai; I have never noticed a garlicky taste. So, having the raw stuff and never experienced what you have there is only one conclusion: you are a weirdo... I mean, it is other stuff in the gum.
posted by munchingzombie at 11:33 AM on March 24, 2008

You know what ... I've eaten stuff at Whole Foods that was supposed to be sweet but that actually kind of tasted a little garlicky. Maybe it was xylitol! Don't remember what all I had there that tasted that way, though.
posted by limeonaire at 4:28 PM on March 24, 2008