



So 23andMe posed the question--"Do you like the taste of cilantro?"--to 50,000 people on their website. Their findings indicated that more people of European and Jewish descent detected a soapy-taste in the cilantro plant versus people of East Asian and South Asian descent (ex. 14.1% - Ashkenazi Jewish vs. 3.9% - South Asian).





When I initially saw the title, I thought it was kind of of a dumb topic as I attribute a person's like or dislike of cilantro based on what culture they grow up in. Obviously certain cultures would be more prone to including it in their cuisine and others not. My understanding is that people raised with cilantro as a part of their normal diet would be more likely to enjoy or at least tolerate the flavor because they were accustomed to it. In my opinion, the above results seem to indicate this as well.





However, the 23andMe site recognized this but still wanted to see if there was any kind of genetic connection. This is what they found: