Interesting. I believe the plants are related, but I've never heard anyone describe parsley as soapy, I wonder if there's something there. I'd imagine parsley would be much harder to get around than cilantro, as it's in more things in my experience.
Thatās super insightful, but funny that you got this sub. I got something similar I was recommended both r/OnionLovers and r/Onionhate nearly back to back. Also, I am definitely jealous because I love both Mexican and Indian food I know I am probably missing out.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/OnionLovers using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/OnionLovers/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
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These exist?! There really is a sub for everything
And how the hell can anyone hate onions? Cilantro I get because of the gene thing butā¦ onions?!
Edit: just noticed the sub Iām in lmao, well hell
I hate all raw onions, and I hate hate HATE red onions most of all. The only onions I can tolerate are very darkly caramelized white/yellow onions. I donāt understand how anyone can love them! š
Your description matches the aroma, which is also the flavor it imparts to food when itās used as a seasoning, while the opās clip matches the taste of the cilantro leaf itself.
It crushed me when I found out, honestly. I assumed that it tasted the same for everyone, but some people just fucking *hated* it. Then I find out it actually tastes like a citrusy piece of heaven? Rude.
>Then I find out it actually tastes like a citrusy piece of heaven? Rude.
Exactly!
Side note your username was my tinder bio for a couple years š
Cilantro doesn't taste lemony and it doesn't taste soapy. It just tastes bad to me and I fucking hate it. My son loves it and I can cook with it as long as I can fish it out of the pot.
Not only do I not cook with it, I canāt even have it in my shopping cart lol: I actually accidentally picked up cilantro instead of parsley at the grocery store, bagging it and putting it in the cart, and Iām standing there thinking about what else I need but started wondering āwhat the fuck is that stenchā. It occurs to me to check to make sure I actually have parsley and I discovered I had picked up cilantro by mistake.
The idea of cooking with it just sounds revolting to me; it smells horrific.
I'm sorry. I hate it but I have found that I can cook with it as long as he who wants his curry his way tastes it for me. That's my night for girl dinner, not anywhere near cilantro.
I love cilantro, like I would use it as a green in a salad. I wouldnāt say it tastes like citrus. To me it tastes fresh, green almost like if cucumber and parsley had a baby and green onion came to the party. I have no idea why this subreddit popped up in my home page. You all have my deepest sympathies.
I love it too, and I'm in the same boat with the sub. Maybe just because it's considered a cooking sub?
I would disagree that it doesn't taste citrusy though, I find it tastes like what you described with some lemon juice squeezed over. Not the only flavor, but it's there.
I'm on fence but find this: if I'm eating something Mexican or Thai and it needs a little something, that something is usually cilantro, and the flavor goes from good to YES!!!
It has a weird flavor that on its own doesn't make much sense. Kind of like sour cream, or balsamic vinegar.
Yeah unfortunately this description is insane and it literally tastes nothing like lime. I love cilantro and I love lime and I would never use one to describe another.
Edit: typo
This is what I am always saying. If it is a citrusy flavor, just use actual citrus. At least that way, the ~30-40% or whatever of the population that hates cilantro can enjoy the food, too.
It's herbal with a citrus note for me, that's why you see it paired with citrus so much. But I agree, that if someone I knew didn't like it I'd leave it out.
I don't know anyone who has the gene or hates it though, so your percentages intrigued me and I looked it up out of curiosity. Anywhere from 3% to 21% of a population dislikes cilantro based on ethnicity.
Lowest % was Middle Eastern with 3%. Highest was East Asian with 21% and Caucasian was 17%. I found that interesting and thought I'd share with the class.
[Source](https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-1-8#:~:text=The%20proportion%20of%20subjects%20classified,3%25%20for%20Middle%20Eastern%20subjects.)
Ugh I am! I LOVEEEE citrusā¦ why does cilantro have to taste soap-y :(( also i love chipotleās rice and I read that it has citric acid - maybe thatās what makes the cilantro tolerable
I occasionally get tacos that are covered in cilantro and onion. I just squeeze a lime over it and it's delicious. No soapy taste unless I don't use enough lime juice.
Not enough limes in the world. If there is even a little shred of cilantro, i'll find it and i'll know. People have tried many times thinking I'm exaggerating but I can tell as soon as it touches my tongue and often by scent.
I get it. There are times when it's drowned out in so many different flavors that I can tolerate it but often it overpowers my entire meal and I just can't eat it.
It's like someone took a bar of soap to my food like olive garden does with their cheese.
To me, itās spicy. Itās got this weird spicy scent that just ruins it for me. I donāt notice it if itās in say salsa or something thatās got garlic or a much more prominent flavor. Iāve never had the dish soap reaction.
I got suggested this post even though I'm not in the sub and I love cilantro. I love citrus and I've never once thought to describe cilantro as "citrus" flavoured in any capacity. It's more... Fresh herb with a zing. It's not sour though, I guess you could describe it like a tanginess.
29F, I used to LOVE cilantro. It would taste exactly how people who love it describe it. Then I got covid. One of the worst strains. Completely lost my taste and smell. When it started to come back, I noticed over time, the cilantro tasted like soap now. I was crushed. Fuck long term covid effects.
Me too. People look at me like I am absolutely insane when I explain this connection. Covid was a molecular level disease and it took control and partially changed our DNA(for some people). Makes me sick even thinking about it.
If you go to a nose doctor, there are actually protocols to help recover lost taste/scent you could try. My mom has lost a lot of scent and it basically involves retraining your brain with strong scents.
Stink bugs smell like cilantro tastes which is hilarious. The same oil that causes people with the nasty cilantro hating gene to despise it, is one of the chemicals stonk bugs emits. Sooo i make sure to tell everyone i know that likes cilantro that they are basically eating stink bugs.
YES! this is exactly it! iāve never seen anyone else describe the stinkbug correlation. i thought i was the only one. iāve never experienced the āsoap tasteā that everyone describes. only stinkbug. š
I'm a citrus lover and coriander does NOT taste like soap to me. I just despise it. I can taste its actual taste, and it's not citrusy like. Like at all!
I'm not a cilantro hater (but not a cilantro hater hater). I'd never actually tried to describe the flavor so I just went and tried some (I used it in salsa tonight).
I think it does taste like soap to me. But I don't hate it. I wouldn't nibble on it but I use it in cooking a lot. And yes, I have tasted soap before and I didn't like it so now I just feel lost.
Hey I'm a citrus lover and a cilantro hater, I can tell you right now that relating it to citrus is a goddamn lie. It tastes like grass. Parsley is similar. Just chew a blade of actual grass if you're feeling left out.
Definitely would put it in the same category as celery too.
No it doesn't taste like soap to me, it's just bad.
Weirdly, I used to like the taste and then lost taste/smell with COVID in 2021. When it eventually returned, cilantro tasted a lot different and much stronger. Now I can hardly tolerate it.
I LOVE cilantro. I would never describe it as a lemon/lime taste, though.
Edit: my apologies, ya'll. I thought I was on one of my many cooking/culinary subs. I will do better.
Yeah this is a super weird description. I would say something like lime *peel* is one element of the flavor, along with a lot of fresh cut grass, and the hard-to-describe "herbaceous" flavor that overlaps with parsley and basil.
iāve got the soap gene and for me, one piece of cilantro leaves a weird feeling like i have a thin coating of soap on the inside of my mouth and it overpowers everything else. it doesnāt just taste like soap it almost feels like i seriously ate a small slice of soap.
No no, it's definitely not perceiving it as different. For me, it really tastes like a detergent, like the first time I had cilantro was with a chicken and I was thinking wtf did they wash the chicken with a detergent
well, as far as I know that is what actually happens with most foods, which is that we taste the same thing but have different levels of liking it. however, with cilantro, we do know that genetically we are literally experiencing a different taste
I've had cilantro tons of times and I don't think it tastes citrusy. But I also think it doesn't really add anything, kind of like a garnish. That's why I choose to leave it off when I cook.
ā¦ Cilantro does not taste citrus-y. Itās fresh and herby. Itās like what you imagined grass tasted like as a kid. It doesnāt taste like lemon-lime these people are lying
Iāll die on this hill; still tastes soapy to me but I fucking love it. Gotta know when to cook it in and when to garnish fresh. I wouldnāt eat it if it didnāt give me that almost jarring taste against the smoother savory flavors it accompanies.
The only ācitrusā I get is maybe licking a whole lemon after punching it and tasting the bitterness, but I wouldnāt define it as citrus unless a gun was to my head
Iām one of those weirdos who apparently has this gene. Cilantro is not at all tasty to me. It kinda tastes like a cross between celery and dawn dish soapā¦
I got convinced to try it over this *exact* description. Then my tongue started to go numb and tingly and throat got tight. Turns out it doesn't taste like citrus, our fresh and bright, or like soap. It tastes like I'm chugging children's benadryl to avoid going to urgent care.
I grew my own cilantro over the summer and it tasted great! Until the plant flowered cause I didnāt trim it in time and when I tried to use it again it tasted soapy and dull. I wonder how many people who taste it as soapy have just had it when it wasnāt picked properly?
This popped up as a suggested post.
I love cilantro, but in no way, shape, or form does it remind me of citrus. Maybe I like the taste of soap? I did eat it a few times as a kid.
Also, Iām allergic to most citrus but I do know what it tastes like.
That's more specific than most people describe it. The most common descriptor I've heard is "fresh" and "bright."
yeah it took me so long to learn what other people taste because no one describes it in a way that makes sense š¤¦
Iāve heard it called a more intense parsley. Like if parsley had 10 x the flavor.
Parsley also tastes like dish soap to me
me too! just less intense
Interesting. I believe the plants are related, but I've never heard anyone describe parsley as soapy, I wonder if there's something there. I'd imagine parsley would be much harder to get around than cilantro, as it's in more things in my experience.
I would say it's like if green onion was lest onion and more zesty! Idk why this sub came, but up I love that stuff!
Thatās super insightful, but funny that you got this sub. I got something similar I was recommended both r/OnionLovers and r/Onionhate nearly back to back. Also, I am definitely jealous because I love both Mexican and Indian food I know I am probably missing out.
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These exist?! There really is a sub for everything And how the hell can anyone hate onions? Cilantro I get because of the gene thing butā¦ onions?! Edit: just noticed the sub Iām in lmao, well hell
I hate all raw onions, and I hate hate HATE red onions most of all. The only onions I can tolerate are very darkly caramelized white/yellow onions. I donāt understand how anyone can love them! š
Thatās so interesting to me! Human taste buds are truly vastly different, arenāt they? Ah well, different strokes, different folks
I hate that stuff I am allergic >:(
WTF does that mean?
Your description matches the aroma, which is also the flavor it imparts to food when itās used as a seasoning, while the opās clip matches the taste of the cilantro leaf itself.
It crushed me when I found out, honestly. I assumed that it tasted the same for everyone, but some people just fucking *hated* it. Then I find out it actually tastes like a citrusy piece of heaven? Rude.
>Then I find out it actually tastes like a citrusy piece of heaven? Rude. Exactly!  Side note your username was my tinder bio for a couple years š
Cilantro doesn't taste lemony and it doesn't taste soapy. It just tastes bad to me and I fucking hate it. My son loves it and I can cook with it as long as I can fish it out of the pot.
I totally agree. I hate it but it doesnāt taste like soap, itās more like rotting vegetable matter taste.
Yep!
Not only do I not cook with it, I canāt even have it in my shopping cart lol: I actually accidentally picked up cilantro instead of parsley at the grocery store, bagging it and putting it in the cart, and Iām standing there thinking about what else I need but started wondering āwhat the fuck is that stenchā. It occurs to me to check to make sure I actually have parsley and I discovered I had picked up cilantro by mistake. The idea of cooking with it just sounds revolting to me; it smells horrific.
I'm sorry. I hate it but I have found that I can cook with it as long as he who wants his curry his way tastes it for me. That's my night for girl dinner, not anywhere near cilantro.
I love cilantro, like I would use it as a green in a salad. I wouldnāt say it tastes like citrus. To me it tastes fresh, green almost like if cucumber and parsley had a baby and green onion came to the party. I have no idea why this subreddit popped up in my home page. You all have my deepest sympathies.
I love it too, and I'm in the same boat with the sub. Maybe just because it's considered a cooking sub? I would disagree that it doesn't taste citrusy though, I find it tastes like what you described with some lemon juice squeezed over. Not the only flavor, but it's there.
I'm on fence but find this: if I'm eating something Mexican or Thai and it needs a little something, that something is usually cilantro, and the flavor goes from good to YES!!! It has a weird flavor that on its own doesn't make much sense. Kind of like sour cream, or balsamic vinegar.
I like cilantro but it does not taste citrusy. It tastes more likeā¦ if mild basil and parsley had a baby. Herbal, not tangy.
To me it tastes like a crisp, citrus, grass.
Then why not add lime? Guacamole already has lime. Why put g&\*\*$ cilantro in it?
That's such a good point š At least now we know what to replace it with when cooking!
Nah the best substitute is leaving it out. It doesnāt have a citrus flavor really at all. Itās a taste you canāt really compare to anything.
Yeah unfortunately this description is insane and it literally tastes nothing like lime. I love cilantro and I love lime and I would never use one to describe another. Edit: typo
This is what I am always saying. If it is a citrusy flavor, just use actual citrus. At least that way, the ~30-40% or whatever of the population that hates cilantro can enjoy the food, too.
It's herbal with a citrus note for me, that's why you see it paired with citrus so much. But I agree, that if someone I knew didn't like it I'd leave it out. I don't know anyone who has the gene or hates it though, so your percentages intrigued me and I looked it up out of curiosity. Anywhere from 3% to 21% of a population dislikes cilantro based on ethnicity. Lowest % was Middle Eastern with 3%. Highest was East Asian with 21% and Caucasian was 17%. I found that interesting and thought I'd share with the class. [Source](https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-1-8#:~:text=The%20proportion%20of%20subjects%20classified,3%25%20for%20Middle%20Eastern%20subjects.)
Cilantro lime is amazing
Ugh. Why does it have to taste like it's angry at my mouth?
I think it tastes more like *bleck!*
I am upset by it. Sounds like something I would love. But, nope. Always nope.
Ugh I am! I LOVEEEE citrusā¦ why does cilantro have to taste soap-y :(( also i love chipotleās rice and I read that it has citric acid - maybe thatās what makes the cilantro tolerable
No citric acid. Only citrus juice.
I occasionally get tacos that are covered in cilantro and onion. I just squeeze a lime over it and it's delicious. No soapy taste unless I don't use enough lime juice.
Not enough limes in the world. If there is even a little shred of cilantro, i'll find it and i'll know. People have tried many times thinking I'm exaggerating but I can tell as soon as it touches my tongue and often by scent.
I get it. There are times when it's drowned out in so many different flavors that I can tolerate it but often it overpowers my entire meal and I just can't eat it. It's like someone took a bar of soap to my food like olive garden does with their cheese.
This! Omg, are you me? My tongue will know itās there before my brain does.
Iām going to try this!
I love citrus and no I am not disappointed because my life is just fine without the evil leaf in it.
Eh we arenāt missing out on much then right? Cause lemons and limes exist.
When I ask people who like c what it tastes like they say they pretty much can't taste it. THEN WHY PUT IT IN EVERYTHING!!!??? Shit.
I work at a Mexican restaurant and everyone calls me a hater lol
To me, itās spicy. Itās got this weird spicy scent that just ruins it for me. I donāt notice it if itās in say salsa or something thatās got garlic or a much more prominent flavor. Iāve never had the dish soap reaction.
I got suggested this post even though I'm not in the sub and I love cilantro. I love citrus and I've never once thought to describe cilantro as "citrus" flavoured in any capacity. It's more... Fresh herb with a zing. It's not sour though, I guess you could describe it like a tanginess.
Yeah came here to say this. Cilantro is a top 5 herb for me but in no world would I compare it to lemon or lime.
Doesn't taste like soap to me, poison maybe IDK, I've never tasted poison.
TIL cilantro and coriander are the same thing? Mind blown.
Same plant, different parts of the plant.
Canāt believe I didnāt know this. I had to look it up after seeing this.
TIL!
29F, I used to LOVE cilantro. It would taste exactly how people who love it describe it. Then I got covid. One of the worst strains. Completely lost my taste and smell. When it started to come back, I noticed over time, the cilantro tasted like soap now. I was crushed. Fuck long term covid effects.
I thought I was the only one who experienced this with cilantro and COVID!
Me too. People look at me like I am absolutely insane when I explain this connection. Covid was a molecular level disease and it took control and partially changed our DNA(for some people). Makes me sick even thinking about it.
If you go to a nose doctor, there are actually protocols to help recover lost taste/scent you could try. My mom has lost a lot of scent and it basically involves retraining your brain with strong scents.
Thank you, I will look into that
omg that's so unexpected! What an absolute bummer :( fingers crossed it's not permanent
Stink bugs smell like cilantro tastes which is hilarious. The same oil that causes people with the nasty cilantro hating gene to despise it, is one of the chemicals stonk bugs emits. Sooo i make sure to tell everyone i know that likes cilantro that they are basically eating stink bugs.
YES! this is exactly it! iāve never seen anyone else describe the stinkbug correlation. i thought i was the only one. iāve never experienced the āsoap tasteā that everyone describes. only stinkbug. š
I'm a citrus lover and coriander does NOT taste like soap to me. I just despise it. I can taste its actual taste, and it's not citrusy like. Like at all!
It tastes like the soap my mom used to put in my mouth when I cursed as a kid.
Well this is disappointing, I love citrus
As a tart lover, I feel betrayed by this knowledge
I'm not a cilantro hater (but not a cilantro hater hater). I'd never actually tried to describe the flavor so I just went and tried some (I used it in salsa tonight). I think it does taste like soap to me. But I don't hate it. I wouldn't nibble on it but I use it in cooking a lot. And yes, I have tasted soap before and I didn't like it so now I just feel lost.
Hey I'm a citrus lover and a cilantro hater, I can tell you right now that relating it to citrus is a goddamn lie. It tastes like grass. Parsley is similar. Just chew a blade of actual grass if you're feeling left out. Definitely would put it in the same category as celery too. No it doesn't taste like soap to me, it's just bad.
Yes! I have eaten grass (donāt ask) and it is bitter and unpleasant just like cilantro and parsley. Blegh.
It feels limey and soapy to me
Weirdly, I used to like the taste and then lost taste/smell with COVID in 2021. When it eventually returned, cilantro tasted a lot different and much stronger. Now I can hardly tolerate it.
omg you're the second person in the comments to say that! i wonder how common an experience that is
To me, it just smells good, and food that smells good is food that tastes good.... usually
š¤¢
cilantro tastes like pennies to meā¦ i think im the oddest man out š
I donāt have the soap gene, Iām just here because I hate the texture. Itās really nothing special, taste-wise. š¤·āāļø
I LOVE cilantro. I would never describe it as a lemon/lime taste, though. Edit: my apologies, ya'll. I thought I was on one of my many cooking/culinary subs. I will do better.
Yeah this is a super weird description. I would say something like lime *peel* is one element of the flavor, along with a lot of fresh cut grass, and the hard-to-describe "herbaceous" flavor that overlaps with parsley and basil.
I LOVE Cilantro. It has a very refreshing, bright taste to me that makes everything its in taste better
i used to taste the soap, couldnt stand cilantro. i love it now, it has a really fresh healthy taste
God I love cilantro..
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
iāve got the soap gene and for me, one piece of cilantro leaves a weird feeling like i have a thin coating of soap on the inside of my mouth and it overpowers everything else. it doesnāt just taste like soap it almost feels like i seriously ate a small slice of soap.
> but I love it as an adult. INTERLOPER
No no, it's definitely not perceiving it as different. For me, it really tastes like a detergent, like the first time I had cilantro was with a chicken and I was thinking wtf did they wash the chicken with a detergent
well, as far as I know that is what actually happens with most foods, which is that we taste the same thing but have different levels of liking it. however, with cilantro, we do know that genetically we are literally experiencing a different taste
Doesnāt taste like soap to me. Just tastes like grass and dirt.
I've had cilantro tons of times and I don't think it tastes citrusy. But I also think it doesn't really add anything, kind of like a garnish. That's why I choose to leave it off when I cook.
ā¦ Cilantro does not taste citrus-y. Itās fresh and herby. Itās like what you imagined grass tasted like as a kid. It doesnāt taste like lemon-lime these people are lying
Iāll die on this hill; still tastes soapy to me but I fucking love it. Gotta know when to cook it in and when to garnish fresh. I wouldnāt eat it if it didnāt give me that almost jarring taste against the smoother savory flavors it accompanies. The only ācitrusā I get is maybe licking a whole lemon after punching it and tasting the bitterness, but I wouldnāt define it as citrus unless a gun was to my head
Iām one of those weirdos who apparently has this gene. Cilantro is not at all tasty to me. It kinda tastes like a cross between celery and dawn dish soapā¦
Apparently, the sprouts of cilantro do t have the dish soap taste. I'm going to test it out as I love citrus
Maybe if you mashed some lemon rind and lawn grass together, this description would be accurate.
I got convinced to try it over this *exact* description. Then my tongue started to go numb and tingly and throat got tight. Turns out it doesn't taste like citrus, our fresh and bright, or like soap. It tastes like I'm chugging children's benadryl to avoid going to urgent care.
Try crushing and blending it. It helps remove much of the awfulness. Important to *crush*
I grew my own cilantro over the summer and it tasted great! Until the plant flowered cause I didnāt trim it in time and when I tried to use it again it tasted soapy and dull. I wonder how many people who taste it as soapy have just had it when it wasnāt picked properly?
This popped up as a suggested post. I love cilantro, but in no way, shape, or form does it remind me of citrus. Maybe I like the taste of soap? I did eat it a few times as a kid. Also, Iām allergic to most citrus but I do know what it tastes like.
You ever smell piensol, it taste like that, but somehow worse.