Dull Your Taste Buds

If you need to eat or drink something that's unpleasant, knowing how to shut down your sense of taste will come in handy. Here are some tips to numbing your taste buds.

Steps

 * 1) Exhale. Your taste buds only recognize six tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami (savory), and surprisingly, they can taste calcium too . The rest is in the nose. If you can avoid smelling the food, you'll avoid a large part of the flavor.  If you aren't concerned about what others around you might think, you can also pinch your nostrils for the same effect.
 * 2) Drink cold water. You might've noticed that any liquid tastes different when it's hot, than when it's cold. Why is that? It's the same liquid, after all. The fact is that generally, cooling numbs your palate, toning down flavors.  If you can drink a glass of cold water right before eating or drinking something unpleasant, you'll be better off. If you can chill the unpleasant food or drink, that's even better.
 * 3) Drink a strong alcohol. A drink with a high alcohol concentration (like whiskey at proof strength) anaesthetizes the nose and sears the tongue.
 * 4) Map out your tongue. Certain areas are more sensitive to certain tastes, but everyone's tongue is different. You can find out how your taste buds are organized by dipping a cotton swab in a liquid that exemplifies that taste (like lemon juice for sour, and sugar water for sweet) and put it on different spots on your tongue to see when it "registers". Once you know which parts of your tongue are sensitive to which flavors, you can avoid letting food come in contact with certain parts to avoid certain tastes.
 * 5) Use a straw. If the flavors you're trying to avoid are in a liquid, use a straw so that you can bypass your tongue. All right, so this doesn't actually dull your taste buds - it takes them out of the equation. Try to consume the liquid right in your throat without letting any of it spread throughout your mouth.
 * 6) Try miracle fruit. This African berry actually chemically reacts with your taste buds, making everything taste sweet.
 * 7) Dry out your mouth. Your taste is all about chemicals. You taste different things depending on how that food reacts with the saliva in your mouth, so by taking paper towel and completely drying out your mouth, you can eliminate nearly all of the taste. But remember, the saliva in your mouth is replenished every few seconds, so eat that food very soon afterward!
 * 8) Practice. With food or drink you do not want to taste, try eating it beforehand, with food you like. Mainly used for liquids. Try water to practice. Take a gulp, and swallow quickly. The taste spends less time on your tongue, and although it may still not taste good, it will make the taste disappear quicker than most methods.

Tips

 * If what you are eating is just something you are not used to, be open minded. When you eat it, don't keep thinking that it is disgusting or tastes bad. Try concentrating extra hard on the flavor of the food and tell yourself that it tastes really good. You'd be surprised how much of it is just mindset. Some of your favorite foods can be acquired tastes.

Warnings

 * If you do drink very cold water, watch out for brain freeze!
 * If you're taking medicine, make sure it's okay to drink alcohol with it before using that method. And make sure you don't drink too much.
 * If something tastes bad, try not to offend the cook. Instead, make a friendly suggestion(eg. Wow, this tastes really good, but maybe next time, maybe put a little less vinegar in?). Cooks want to make their food taste as good as possible, and they love it when people make suggestions!
 * Don't drink alcohol if you're under the legal age!

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Swallow a Pill
 * How to Acquire the Taste for Wine
 * How to Taste Dark Chocolate
 * How to Taste Single Malt Scotch
 * How to Disguise the Taste of Nasty Vegetables