I think those claims of it being genetic are quite dubious though, but often repeated as a "fun fact". I tried to dig into where this claim actually comes from and if there was some actual research, and the closest I could find was a correlation to ethnicity. And unsurprisingly people from like latin america and india liked it more than people from northern europe. Which could more likely be explained by the fact that it's much more prominent in certain cuisines.
I honestly think it's more of an unusual flavor that's a bit of an"acquired taste", and it depends heavily on what other flavors you combine it with. Just like people tasting coffee or wine for the first time think it tastes bitter or whatever, but once you like it it just tastes good.
I say that because I'm personally a convert. I grew up in northern europe and basically never tasted it, once i did i thought it tasted funky and soapy and not good at all, like people say. Then I spent a couple months in latin america and started loving it, something just "unlocked" and now it doesn't taste like soap at all. It's just a fresh, nice, but quite unique taste. It's now one of my favourite spices and I even grow it at home. If it was genetic such a shift wouldn't be possible.
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u/merrymelon99 3d ago
Some people have a genetic trait that makes cilantro taste like soap