Acquired Taste

The only time I miss sugar is when I cook grits. Oops! By the way, there's no sugar in these cupboards. It's been almost two years now.

 “Isn’t it bitter?”

“It’s an acquired taste.”

That is usually the smug reply. No problem. I think about sugar every time I see someone smoking a cigar or drinking red wine. Acquired taste is a bull’s eye phrase, isn’t it? It is a taste you didn’t have before, but deliberately cultivated. Older women in Cuba smoke cigars. Why not? I understand some of the best cigars in the world are rolled in Havana. What I don’t understand are men and child birth. Some of them share cigars with friends to celebrate a new-born baby. Where did that acquired taste come from, the movies or where, exactly?

Smoking a cigar is an acquired taste, the same way sugar in tea or coffee is. I got worried when two teaspoons were not enough. I added half a teaspoon. Again, not sweet enough. I detective-d myself and said we have a problem. The body doesn’t want to play sweet sixteen anymore. It was harder with coffee. Tea was easier because I changed the destination and went to herbal tea like green tea, garlic and honey, nutmeg and some other names I cannot pronounce.

Sugar was acquired taste from my upbringing. When times were hard, tea and bread was all we had. No. I will not blame my mother for our circumstances. The only acquired taste on her mind was seeing us through school. We did, became ‘educated’ and acquired tastes that are detrimental to our health and happiness.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger