Acquired taste

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An acquired taste is an appreciation for a food or beverage that is unlikely to be enjoyed, in part or in full, by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it, usually because of some unfamiliar aspect of the food or beverage, including a strong or strange odor, taste, or appearance. The process of “acquiring” a taste involves consuming a food or beverage in the hope of learning to enjoy it. In most cases, this introductory period is considered worthwhile, as many of the world's delicacies are considered to be acquired tastes.

Some things considered acquired tastes, particulary by people not from the place where it originates:

• Andouillette, a French tripe sausage
• Balut, a boiled, fertilized duck egg
• Beer, especially strong ales and stout
• Casu marzu, a Sardinian cheese containing live insect larvae
• Caviar, a delicacy consisting of sturgeon eggs.
• Century egg, a specially preserved Chinese egg
• Coffee, a bitter beverage prepared from roasted coffea seeds
• Dijon mustard
• Durian, a pungent southeast Asian fruit
• Fernet Branca, a particularly strong, grape based, herbal digestif
• Gueuze, a lambic style of beer originating from Belgium
• Hákarl, putrefied Iceland shark
• Huitlacoche, fungus-infected maize, popular in Mexico
• Jiló, bitter fruit (cooked as a vegetable) popular in Brazil
• Kutti pi, an Anglo-Indian dish consisting of goat fetus
• Laphroaig, Scotch whisky made with malt smoked over peat fires, giving a distinctive peat taste to the whisky.
• Lapsang souchong, smoked Chinese black tea
• Lutefisk, Nordic lye-soaked whitefish
• Marmite, Vegemite or Cenovis, spreads made from yeast extract
• Nattō, Japanese fermented soybeans
• Pu erh, a compressed, aged tea dominated by strong, earthy overtones
• Salmiakki/Drop—Nordic/Dutch ammonium salt liquorice candy
• Strong cheeses, such as Blue cheese, Goat cheese, Gamalost (also Gammelost)
• Surströmming, Swedish fermented Baltic herring
• Tempeh, a fermented food made from soybeans popular in Southeast Asia
• Uni, sea urchin roe
• Kimchi traditional Korean dish of fermented chili peppers and vegetables, usually made from Chinese cabbage.