this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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We need a study on if that’s the divide. If you can smell ants you also think cilantro tastes like soap
Cilantro: tastes like soap
Can smell ants: no
Sorry, I'm a counterpoint. I got the worst of both.
But do ants taste like soap or cilantro
They taste kind of almost vinegarey
I'm with you. Can't smell ants, but cilantro is soapy.
There are lots of little genetic quirks out there. I experience Arnold's Reflex, that is, I cough when I stick a cotton swab in my left ear canal. (Only my left. My right doesn't react.) There's also the Photic Sneeze Reflex, which is where you sneeze when looking at light. I don't have that, but around 35% of the population does.
I'm sure there are countless more little things like this that people just haven't talked about/gathered enough data on yet.
Every single time I walk outside, 3 sneezes sometimes more because of the sun. Although I've never met somebody else who does the same
My mom does that, but I believe it may be a sign of a tick, or at least that’s what my father once told me. Worth checking out in any case.
Either I've had a tick for the past 19 years, or its unrelated in my case
I learned about the Photic Sneeze Reflex when discussing the frustration of cancelled sneezes (you know, when you feel one coming on, but then it just doesn't happen and it leaves you feeling weird.) He told me, "When that happens, I just look at a light." I had no idea what he meant. Meanwhile, he thought it was normal for everyone. We both learned something that day.
An entry for ACHOO syndrome in the National Library of Medicine, by a Laura Dean (I think?) from 2012 claims 1 in 4 people will be pushed over the edge to a sneeze when they already have one on the edge, but "pure" photic sneezing is "far less common" although there is no number given, so I have no idea how rare or common it is to just straight up sneeze from light without already having to sneeze
I didn't know about the cough reflex. I'll have to check if it's both sides. Can you taste iodine? It's present in hot pink food dye, making things like pink peeps taste worse than yellow or blue for me
I can smell ants (but they aren't disgusting just sour) and cilantro is delicious.
Can smell ants, love cilantro, can't smell stinkbugs.
Stinkbugs only smell bad if you scare them. They never smell bad to me, either, but I also try not to scare insects.
Idk if scooping them up and putting them outside is scary to them, but I'm told people can smell them just from being in the same room with them, or crushing them, and I've done (or been near) all of the above yet never smelled one. And they're constantly sneaking in my house so I should have by now I think.
It's smarter to release them back outside because crushing them releases a pharamone that attract more stink bugs. Ants and bees do the same too.
When the ant wars come you'll be the first to go.
Eh we survived the last one in '54, we'll survive this one. We even made a Doc about it called "Them!"
Maybe it’s you who has bo and just can’t smell it. Everyone else has been hinting.
Do stink bugs smell like BO?
Though when I do, I do smell it, and I shower regularly, and it only comes up when talking about stinkbugs, so I'm doubting your hypothesis regardless.
I can’t smell ants, and cilantro tastes soapy. However, I do have dry earwax and my armpits don’t smell. (Which is just spurious information to your hypothesis.)
but can you roll your tongue?
I cannot!
I can smell ants strongly and have an aversion to them, and cilantro tastes wonderful to me.
this is your thread! Go nuts!
Exactly! Cilantro tastes like soap to me, but my kids love it. That is so weird. Ant smell and probably snake smell are the same I bet. I have heard old people say they can smell a snake around.
I am afraid that cilantro does taste like soap to me but that people around me have been telling me long enough that it's tasty that I started to like it.
Tldr: I now like the taste of soap.
i’ve had a similar experience, at first it was incredibly soapy to me. now i genuinely like it and i don’t taste the soap anymore. how could that work though if it’s a genetic trait? could this be stronger in some variants of cilantro? or even on the culantro/cilantro divide?
Same experience here.
I can kind of... plug my sinuses if I'm eating something unappealing? Maybe that's something you've unconsciously started doing when you eat cilantro now?
I'm slightly in this. I love cilantro, but when I heard it tastes like soap to some I just thought "I guess a little bit it does taste that way... but the rest of it tastes better."