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"  While researchers continue to find new flavors, others have found ways to block flavors - bitterness to be exact - and Francis Lam, a senior writer at Salon, was able to get a hold of some. The technical name of the bitter blocker is Adenosine 5&amp;#039;-Monophosphate. If you are of a scientific mind you can learn about the details of the compound here. If you are not, then essentially what it does is block a protein called gastducin, which receives and registers bitterness. All you need to understand is that when dissolved into a solution and dropped on the tongue it is purported to prevent that tongue from tasting bitterness. But does it work? Mr. Lam convened with Nils Noren and Dave Arnold of the French Culinary Institute in order to find out. After beginning with dainty drops of the solution in Campari and seeing little to no affect, Lam swished a full dropper of the compound in his mouth. He then tasted quinine, a notoriously bitter solution, which accounts for the bitterness (and supposed malaria fighting qualities) of tonic water. In his words, Lam described the flavor as &amp;quot;fine&amp;quot; while those who tried the quinine without the bitter blocker were furiously attempting to shake the flavor out of their mouths. Further tests proved that baking chocolate tasted like nothing at and &amp;quot;bread, burnt to holy hell&amp;quot; tasted like an entirely palatable piece of toast. The compound was approved of by the FDA in 2004. So what are the potentials of such a compound? Scientists theorize that our perception of bitterness could be something evolved in order to detect poisons. Think about the face you would make were you to bite into the pith of a lemon. That negative expression is a sign to others not to eat whatever it was that you just ate. Unfortunately for the manufacturers artificial ingredients and compounds (such as medicines) also have a bitter quality. Adding the compound to the mix would help counter that flavor rather than simply mask it, which has been the solution in the past. Recently the bitter blocker has been used in artificial sweetness. Some of us appreciate the bitterness of a good Negroni or super dark chocolate or IPA. But how about you sweet-toothed readers? Will you be bidding on bitter blockers? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38367/bitter-blockers-block-bitterness/?src=shelter_footer>