flax and olive oils

[quatre_vingts]

Does flaxseed oil have any flavor? The kind I see at my grocery store is kept in the cold case (w00t) and made by Spectrum. Is it an overpowering pungent sort of taste, or a nice subtle aromatic sort of taste that you have to focus on to pick up? Or does this vary with brand and quality? And when you started taking/using (I know not to cook it) the

Comments

[pseudosoliloquy]

from what i remember, flax seed oil tastes nasty as all hell. very powerful. maybe i got a bad batch...

[vgnwtch]

When rancid, flaxseed oil apparently tastes awful. I have never had a bad batch, and have always found the taste mild. Buy preferably from a refrigerated section, and chill immediately on returning home. Flaxseed meal can be kept in the fridge or freezer (I always keep mine in the freezer) for the same reason.

I like a mild to mid-fruity olive oil; I used to buy Spectrum or Bionature from the local food co-op when living in the US.

[turil]

Yeah, I'll back up the warning on rancid oil.

I had a very, very bad experience when I had some of my husband's old oil instead of the ground seeds one morning when I was in a hurry. I was on a small private plane soon afterwards and the stuff came right back up (along with the pomegranate juice I'd had)! And then I couldn't get the dead fish taste and smell out of my body all day. And I absolutely hate fish, even before I was a vegan I thought the stuff was the most disgusting thing. Bleeeeech!

[danimoreira]

portuguese extra virgin olive oil is the best, in my opinion. at least for eating, i don't know about cleansing :). you should look on the package for acidity (you dont want more than 0,5%) for the better ones. spanish is good too, and italian is not bad. i don't like greek oil, the ones i had taste/ smell a bit too strong/ slightly bitter to me.
i use 'borges' portuguese brand.

[im_sassy]

i think flax seed oil is gross, but i still take it because i notice a difference. one thing the supplement lady at whole foods told me is that if your oil says "high lignan" or "high lignan content" it will be more bitter but it is better for your skin and joints.

[vgnwtch]

It shouldn't be bitter. I used high lignan flaxseed oil for years, and while it has a slightly stronger taste, bitter it isn't.

[the_dilettante]

just yesterday i was reading this article from the BBC's science page, which is a basic intro to taste research stuff.
apparently, some people have more taste buds than others ("supertasters"), and "[the] more taste buds you have, the more intensely you perceive tastes, especially bitter ones."
and if bitterness is indeed disproportionately stronger to "supertasters", then the variation in taste they experience would be qualitative as well as quantitative -- not just stronger, but quite different.

i've always been a bit sceptical of people's claims that flax is bitter, and just assumed they had a rancid batch, or something -- i love the stuff, in any form -- but i realise now that it's probably just that what tastes good to me and my average-number-of-taste-buds does taste bitter to some people.

[turil]

There are also non-tasters, I believe, too. Since the gene is recessive you can have either no bitter taste buds, some bitter taste buds or lots of bitter taste buds. But I could be completely wrong...

I, for the record am not a supertaster, though I really hate bitter foods (coffee, dark chocolate, etc.). I have no idea why.