I ate a bag of potato chips with lunch and they were.......not bad! My salt taste is definitely coming back. Sweet never went completely away, but sour is still nowhere. I tried a pickle and tasted nothing. I'm not sure how to test bitter since I don't really eat any bitter foods.
Anyway, progress.
Try some endive (either curly or Belgian) or radicchio. A cup of tea, unsweetened, might also trigger your bitter buds.
One of the few positive aspects of chemo was soda being truly disgusting to consume. Particularly Red Bull, which is my weakness.
Unfortunately, that blessing ended when I got off chemo.
G&T? Quinine is always mentioned as the definition of bitter, is it not? And if the test fails, you could do worse than trying again on a daily basis …
Try chocolate. If you can't taste bitter, it'll taste wrong.
Coffee and/or really dark chocolate. Or if you really want to test it, wormwood (tea).
And/or to kick in a really good night (especially with the coffee and chocolate): https://www.originalabsinthe.com/absinthe-liquor/absinthe-original-bitter-spirit.html
Congrats on getting some of your taste buds back!
Off them all, if I had to give one up, it would be bitter - even if, as many commenters have said, chocolate doesn't taste right without it.
I think I'd go nuts if I couldn't taste salt, though: it's one of my favorite things.
Can you taste umami?
Glad your sense of taste is returning!
Yay!
One good way to test all your flavors is to go to an authentic Thai restaurant.
You don't eat ruccola (sorry arugula for you septics)? That is definitely lightly bitter. What kind of liberal are you then?
Salt is the gateway to other flavors. It opens the pores on your tongue which supercharge your taste buds. Always start with salt!
Kale, broccoli and arugula are good for you, right?
So now that you can't taste the bitterness, double down on the healthy greens.
Go to whole foods, pick up Pliny the Elder. Take a sip. Report back.
Drink an IPA.