Super taster sounds like a compliment. It isn’t. It’s a genetic condition where bitter tastes register so intensely that coffee arrives as liquid body odor and alcohol lands like Windex. Nearly a quarter of the population has it. Most of them have no idea there’s a name for it.

There is a specific social cost to having a body that genuinely rejects what everyone else is drinking. Not preference, a physical response so strong Yale researchers gave it a name in the 1990s. A home test using food coloring can confirm it: fifteen or more visible taste buds in the stained area and you qualify.

Kris Abel is a confirmed super taster who has been declining drinks his whole life and tonight explains why. He also brings the $800 Apple AirPods Max 2 that responds to head nods, and a Japanese robot tongue called Licker that produces real saliva. The tech has range.

Topics: super taster, taste buds genetics, Apple AirPods Max 2, robot tongue Japan, bitter sensitivity

GUEST: Kris Abel | realkrisabel.com

Originally aired on2026-03-17