If you’re not keen on brassicas - cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or Brussels sprouts the likelihood is you’ll love the smell of freshly ground coffee but won’t care for the taste when brewed? Why – well brassicas contain chemical compounds similar to PTC.

PTC is a bitter compound that is one of the best known dominant genetic traits in human populations, ranking alongside eye colour and blood type. The ability to taste this bitter compound or not is that pronounced between one person or another it is weirdly amusing and has a huge influence on what we eat and drink – including coffee.

A person who is able to taste PTC with great intensity is not expected to like coffee. Some 35% of women and 15% of men will fall into this area of great intensity, with some to a lesser extent with some not being able to taste PTC at all. So why am I blogging about people who do not like coffee – well here is the theory – PTC is bitter to the taste and so is bad / commercial grade coffee whereas top quality speciality grade coffee is smooth and moreover sweet. So I’m guessing there are a fair percentage of people out there that have a dislike for coffee since they have not discovered coffee at its best. How have I come to this conclusion? Well my PTC taste results were positively high and thus should not really like coffee at all.