How to Dull Your Taste Buds

If you need to eat or drink something that's unpleasant, knowing how to shut down your sense of taste will come in handy. Here are some tips to numbing your taste buds.

Steps

1. 1
   Exhale. Your taste buds only recognize six tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, Umami (savory), and surprisingly, they can taste calcium too^[1]. The rest is in the nose. If you can avoid smelling the food, you'll avoid a large part of the flavor.^[2] If you aren't concerned about what others around you might think, you can also pinch your nostrils for the same effect.^[3]
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2. 2
   Drink cold water.You might have noticed that any liquid tastes different when it's hot, than when it's cold. Why is that? It's the same liquid, after all. The fact is that generally, cooling numbs your palate, toning down flavors.^[4] If you can drink a glass of cold water right before eating or drinking something unpleasant, you'll be better off. If you can chill the unpleasant food or drink, that's even better.
3. 3
   Drink a strong alcoholic drink. A drink with a high alcohol concentration (like whiskey at proof strength) anesthetizes the nose and sears the tongue.^[5]
4. 4
   Make a peppermint mouthwash. Pour a bottle of peppermint extract into a small cap. Pour the capful into your mouth. Coat your tongue with the extract. Spit out the extract and rinse your mouth with cold water. Your taste buds will now be useless for the next hour.
5. 5
   Map out your tongue. Certain areas are more sensitive to certain tastes, but every one's tongue is different.^[6] You can find out how your taste buds are organized by dipping a cotton swab in a liquid that exemplifies that taste (like lemon juice for sour, and sugar water for sweet) and put it on different spots on your tongue to see when it "registers".^[7] Once you know which parts of your tongue are sensitive to which flavors, you can avoid letting food come in contact with certain parts to avoid certain tastes.
6. 6
   Use a straw. If the flavors you're trying to avoid are in a liquid, use a straw so that you can bypass your tongue. All right, so this doesn't actually dull your taste buds - it takes them out of the equation. Try to consume the liquid right in your throat without letting any of it spread throughout your mouth.
7. 7
   Try miracle fruit. ^[8] This African berry actually chemically reacts with your taste buds, making everything taste sweet.
8. 8
   Dry out your mouth. Your taste is all about chemicals. You taste different things depending on how that food reacts with the saliva in your mouth, so by taking paper towel and completely drying out your mouth, you can eliminate nearly all of the taste. But remember, the saliva in your mouth is replenished every few seconds, so eat that food very soon afterward!
9. 9
   Practice. With food or drink you do not want to taste, try eating it beforehand, with food you like. Mainly used for liquids. Try water to practice. Take a gulp, and swallow quickly. The taste spends less time on your tongue, and although it may still not taste good, it will make the taste disappear quicker than most methods.