Culture and Bitter Preferences
It is known infants adore sweet tastes, and older children go for “extreme” sourness. However, they all tend to dislike bitter tastes. At a later age, people start to appreciate bitter-tasting vegetables and beverages. This explains why virtually no child likes the taste of beer, when offered the opportunity to take a sip, nor wine nor coffee, while most adults are known to generally like these beverages.
Besides age-related differences in taste and preference, cultural differences can also be striking. For instance, Central American, pre-Columbian cultures were reported to drink extremely bitter beverages from the fruit of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao). Currently, northern European cultures, such as the Belgians, Brits and Dutch, have a taste for bitter beers and ales. A Belgian beer type, Poperings Hommelbier, is typically named after its main bitter ingredient, hops, known in the local Flemish dialect as hommel (the botanical name Humulus lupulus).