Whether people prefer coffee or tea may boil down to a matter of taste genetics.
People with a version of a gene that increases sensitivity to the bitter flavor of caffeine tend to be coffee drinkers, researchers report online November 15 in Scientific Reports. Tea drinkers tended to be less sensitive to caffeine’s bitter taste, but have versions of genes that increase sensitivity to the bitterness of other chemicals, the researchers found.
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Researchers in Australia, the United States and England examined DNA from more than 400,000 participants in the UK Biobank, a repository of genetic data for medical research. Participants also reported other information about their health and lifestyle, including how much tea or coffee they drink each day.
The team added up each person’s variants in the taste genes, creating a genetic score for how intensely the person tastes each of the bitter chemicals. The researchers then compared those scores to the people’s reported beverage choices.
People who had the highest genetic score for detecting caffeine’s bitterness were 20 percent more likely to be heavy coffee drinkers, downing four or more cups a day, than those without the increased sensitivity.
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Coffee drinkers may have learned to enjoy caffeine’s bitterness because it’s a sign of the buzz the chemical provides. But tea drinkers may not actually like the bitterness of PROP and quinine, says [epidemiologist Marilyn] Cornelis.
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