ADVICE

Question:
Why is it sometimes I drink Coca-Cola and it's the most delicious
thing in the world (i.e. today)? Other times it tastes bitter and
metallic (i.e. yesterday). The Coke comes from the same fridge, from
a can and I always drink out of a glass.

Coked Up

The Coca-Cola conundrum: My instinct was to say that there is some flaw in the canning process, and just like no two snowflakes are alike, so too does Coca Cola offer an infinite variety of tasting experience. However, as my instincts are often wrong, sometimes appallingly so, I decided to consult someone I consider more of an expert on these subjects: my father. My father, besides participating in my creation, is a bona fide scientist. I dialed. I asked. And this was what I got:

"Hmmm. I'm not sure." Pause. Then, "I remember when I was a kid I would have a can of Coke and the first taste was always delicious, but then somewhere after those first few sips it would take on an unpleasant flavor."

I decided to jog his scientific noggin, clearly retirement has not been good for his faculties of enquiry, I mean at the very least he could have made an answer up: "Well, don't you think that some of the metals or some of the batches of Coca-Cola could be imperfect? I mean you [Coca Cola] can't regulate everything."

Father: "Oh, no, they are a very invested and careful company. Every can is a very calculated package." He paused again.

Me: "So, what are you suggesting? That it is a physiological flaw? That peoples palates can change over the course of a day or days?"

Father: "Yes, that would be the more reliable variable."

Me: "Well, why didn't you just say that?"

Father: "Ah, young grasshopper, you are so impatient for answers."

I ended our conversation, mulling over this different angle. It does seem to make sense that our own biology is more changeable than a can of coke. But just because something makes sense doesn't mean that it is true. I looked further, to the great bastion of truth, the Internet.

According to an article I found after googling 'biology + taste':

" (T)aste is the least understood of the human senses. Unlike vision, audition, or olfaction, taste is an area of neuroscience in which fundamental questions have not yet been fully answered because the biological system is not easy to study, according to Nirupa Chaudhari, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Among such basic questions awaiting answers are how tastes are detected and how the brain knows what the mouth tastes.

ADDING TO THE complexity of this sense is the fact that taste cells are not static. "They are continually being born, turning over, and dying," explains Sue C. Kinnamon, an associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Colorado State University. "The nervous system is having to make new connections with the newly born cells and to lose connections with the cells that are dying. And somehow it has to maintain continuity so that sugar will always taste sweet. This constant turnover is fascinating, and we don't understand it yet."

So I guess in answer to your question Coked Up, I don't know. If the scientists don't know than I sure as hell don't.

However I will say something on the issue, Coca Cola is evil incarnate: The high phosphorous content leaches calcium from your bones, the roughly ten teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounce soda will rot teeth, spike blood sugar levels, and add a whack of calories that contain absolutely no nutrition (Aspartame isn't a better choice either; it can throw off the electrical balance of the brain).

The picture is courtesy of Mark Vail Auction.