will i like this if i hate it?

[brigid]

I worked at a pie cafe once (one of the best jobs I've ever had) and two people came in once and were looking at the pies in the case and asking questions. One of them was, obviously, what's my favorite pie. I mentioned that our cherry pies are great, my favorite fruit pie we sold. So one of them asked "If I don't like cherry pie, will I like it?"

And I just stopped and looked at her. How do you answer a question like that? I don't know! I have no way of knowing! Probably not? But maybe?

So I asked her what she disliked about cherry pie and I mentioned that our cherries are a tart variety and we don't use a lot of sugar and the cherries remain fairly firm, not mush. She looked interested.

So then I said hey, if you don't like it, I'll give you something else instead. No problems.

She tried it, she liked it, she and her friend bought something else to take home.

But that moment, that exact moment of mentally slamming into a wall at a question, has stayed with me.

"If I don't like the thing, will I like this version of the thing?"

Taste is so subjective.

What a question.

Comments

[twistedchick]

It could also be questioning previous experience of the thing. Was the pie that I had with this kind of cherries and this kind of crust the only kind of cherry pie (which I don't like) or is there something different with the same name that I might?

[lassarina]

I hate coconut. Particularly in sweets. German chocolate cake is both a textural and a taste nope. I will gag if I accidentally bite into a Mounds bar or similar. Coconut flavored drinks like piña colada are an automatic "thanks but never."

I like coconut fried shrimp and Thai curries, neither of which "taste like" coconut to me.

So in some senses this question does make sense to me, but also, yeah, the phrasing is a little bit *owl head tilt.*