Cilantro: you either love it or hate it. Personally, I am disgusted by both the smell and taste of the herb. I’m a very picky eater and always believed that I don’t like cilantro because of my selective palette. But one day recently I heard on the radio that a person’s opinion of cilantro may be due to genetics. So I have taken to the Internet to figure out exactly what the deal is.

Cilantro is just like any other herb: it’s leafy, green, and grows out of the ground. It’s found of lots of different types of food. Most of you might recognize it from being in the rice at Chipotle. For some people, it adds a lot of flavor to certain dishes. For others, like myself, it can taste similar to dish soap or dirty socks. There is even an entire website dedicated to cilantro haters called I Hate Cilantro; they can go there and talk about their disgust over the herb. It’s quite amusing to read.

Studies done by Charles J. Wysocki at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia have concluded that “Some people may be genetically predisposed to dislike cilantro”. But there are still tons of questions on why this happens exactly.

Jay Gottfried, who is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, researches how our brains perceive and react to different smells. Gottfried explains that “the brain searches its memory to find a pattern from past experience that the flavor belongs to”. But when some people smell cilantro, the brain cannot connect the scent to a former memory, and then identifies it as a potential threat to our wellbeing. Over time, cilantro haters could start to like the herb, the more the brain adjusts to its unusual smell and flavor. Nicholas Eriksson has come to the conclusion from his studies on the topic that “DNA does shape our opinion of cilantro, but probably not enough that we can’t overcome it”.

So for those of you who also hate cilantro, there is hope for us yet. The genes that detect cilantro to taste and smell foul for us may change over time. But until then, here is a very helpful tip: you can ask for the rice at Chipotle without cilantro and they will grab some from the kitchen. I know, it is amazing. You are welcome.