this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Whatever, keep your ant-smelling superpower, I'm not jealous. At least cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me! :P
We need a study on if that’s the divide. If you can smell ants you also think cilantro tastes like soap
Can smell ants, love cilantro, can't smell stinkbugs.
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.)
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
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.
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
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.