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The Real Idea: Phenylthiocarbamide Cola, or PTC Cola for short, is
a
soft drink that contains its eponymous chemical. This additive is
tasteless to about 30% of the population, who do not carry the
dominant gene necessary to taste it. For the other 70%, however,
the
chemical tastes extremely
bitter and disgusting. Those who carry
the
recessive gene can hoard the soda to themselves, as no one else
will
want to drink it.
The Fluff:
"Hey there, Jim Bob. How're ya doing?"
"Just fine. Say, you want to come in and have a drink?"
"Alright. Waittaminute! Those cans look different from the soda
that
you usually have!"
"That's right. Whenever I get a few Cokes, Lola and the kids get in
here and drink 'em all dry before I can have a sip. Get's a man
thirsty,
you know. That's why I got this Phenylthiocarbamide Cola here."
"Phena-whatsit Cola?"
"Just call it PTC Cola. I reckon it contains a chemical that makes
it
taste pretty bad to anyone who carries a certain gene. Luckily, I
don't carry that gene, so it tastes just like Coke to me. But Lola
has
the gene, and she passed it on to the kids, so none of 'em can
stand
the stuff. I let them learn that the hard way. So do ya want a can
or
not?"
"Yeah, sure, I guess. Ugh--this stuff tastes horrible!"
6-n-propylthiouracil, or PROP
http://www.tastesci...om/abouttaste3.html
Another chemical that some people can't taste [Wrongfellow, Dec 09 2009]
Wikipedia: Photic Sneeze Reflex
http://en.wikipedia...hotic_sneeze_reflex
Wow, a condition I never realised I had! [zen_tom, Dec 09 2009]
[link]
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All cola tastes disgusting, but have a [+] for ingenuity. |
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[+] unless I find out I have the gene to taste it. |
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There should be a party game where people are people are progressively weeded out based on their genes, first a round of magic eye (What is the image?, a horse? alright), then examine an inverted rotating mask (does it look inverted? No, good your not schizophrenic), then drink some PTC cola (did you make a face? No?), then head outside in the bright sun (did you sneeze? No?), then get in your car and guess what color is the (for the game modified) stoplight, (did you crash? No?) O.K. I guess you win. |
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[pocmloc], agreed. Give me root beer over cola any day. |
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Why stop at cola? Sell Phenylthiocarbamide as a condiment.
Useful to protect your lunch in the office fridge. Usefull,
too, for couples one of whom is dieting (21% of such couples,
anyway): Normally, the kitchen must be emptied of pastry,
ice cream, etc, so that the dieter isn't tempted. This is hard
on the non-dieter. The nondieter can stock up on goodies,
which'll taste horrible to the dieter, but fine to the
nondieter. [+] |
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[+], especially for turning Mendelian inheritance into a
consumer issue. |
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Although PTC is the classic example, there must surely be
other flavours that only subsets of the population can taste? |
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When I saw 'carbamide' in the title my first thought was |
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"holy $hit, this guy is going to make a billion off of this idea!" |
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Carbamide Peroxide is a common ingredient in many of the teeth whiteners that have been the rage for a decade or so. Combine this with Coca-Cola? |
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Zing - pow! Retire to a 50 million dollar seaside in Pacific Grove, set up full scholarships in your name for 200 students a year at a university of choice, own an internationally dominant ping pong team, and live like scrooge mcduck and hugh hefner rolled into one till your dying breath. |
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//there must surely be other flavours that only subsets of the population can taste?// |
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I'm among the tiny fraction of the population that can't taste citric acid. |
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Can't taste citric acids, say? There's money in that... |
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"I'll bet you that I can eat this lemon whole." |
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There's actually a fruit called the Miracle Berry that, when
eaten, prevents one from tasting sour foods for about an
hour. Needless to say, once I got my hands on one I used it to
partake in a buffet of raw citrus fruit, drinking vinegar to help
it go down. Not a good idea; I had acid pains for the next day
and a half. |
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You'll probably find that 'Marmite' have been doing this for years! |
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I still find lemons sour - I suppose there must be more to the taste than just the citric acid - but they're quite edible; I could easily eat a whole one. |
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People sometimes give me funny looks for eating the slices of lemon that pubs put in glasses of lemonade. |
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I have no idea how bad they taste to the rest of you, and I'll probably never know! |
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Oh, and when I was a kid I used to drink vinegar too, from a shot glass. |
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There is nothing wrong with eating the lemon slices from your drink. |
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No, but beware of eating them from someone else's.... |
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// when I was a kid I used to drink vinegar too// |
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Hi there, so how did you end up on this lousy little planet ? |
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//Oh, and when I was a kid I used to drink vinegar too, from a
shot glass.// |
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That's weird. You must be insensitive to acetic as well as
citric acid. |
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//No, but beware of eating them from someone else's....//
Depends how badly you're trying to break the ice. |
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I shall market a competitive product some deliciously flavored, some embittered, and selectively distributed to certain locales of homogeneous ethnic concentrations and through a cunning manipulation exploit the racist mindset that may exist in some of those locales to associate enjoyment of the beverage as an endogenous characteristic and thus a fixture of identity for the discriminating and poor prejudicial souls who will loyally buy it as a vain attempt to validate their delusions. |
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//You must be insensitive to acetic as well as citric acid.// |
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Perhaps I am! To me, vinegar has a very sharp flavour, but I don't find it unpalatable at all. I tend to put a lot more of it on my chips than most people, too. |
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Maybe the same missing taste receptor is responsible for both? |
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Or maybe you just like vinegar. |
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I'm tempted to write a long spiel about the perils of applying objective science to subjective opinions, but I probably shouldn't. |
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umm, i hate to be the guy who asks but... in large doses, over the long-term, isn't this bad for you? |
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Now available with chips at an ACM near you + |
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