How to Tell if You Are a Supertaster

What's a supertaster you ask? More or less, it's just someone with a heck of a lot more taste-buds than the average person. All these extra taste-buds tend to make supertasters hyper sensitive to tastes, due to the increased intensity of any given taste they are detecting. Researchers estimate the supertasters experience flavors about three times stronger than the average taster.

MATERIALS NEEDED:
*Piece of thick paper such as 3x5 note card or construction paper
*Blue food coloring
*Mirror
*Magnifying glass
*Cotton swab (optional)
*Hole punch (optional)

STEP 1:
Poke a hole in the paper approximately the size of a standard paper hole punch hole (should be 7mm or .27 inches in diameter; most hole punches range between 8mm and 8mm).

STEP 2:
Now rub some of the food coloring onto your tongue with a cotton swab or your finger. You will notice under the magnifying glass that the food coloring will tend to show up on your  tongue, but the papillae will stay pink-ish, looking like little pink bumps on your tongue.

STEP 3:
Place the hole on the paper over part of your tongue that has the food coloring and press gently, so as not to move the paper while you are counting.

STEP 4:
Use the magnifying glass and a mirror to count how many papillae you see on your tongue through the hole in the paper. The papillae should appear like tiny pink dots surrounded by blue food coloring.


That's it. If you counted close to 35-ish or more, you are a supertaster. If you counted beeetween 15 or more up to around 35-ish, you are a medium taster. If you counted less than 15, you are a non-taster. Obviously there are ranges within each group, but that's generally how the three groups are classified. But beyond labels like "supertaster", the more papillae you counted, the stronger you taste things.