Chances are you've never tasted crude oil, and if you had the chance, you'd probably pass 99.9% of the time. Interestingly, however, crude oil tastes sweet when its sulfur concentration is lower than 0.42% per volume. Sulfur in crude oil is an impurity, and gives off the smell of rotten eggs when found as hydrogen sulfide. Sour crude oil has a sulfur volume higher than 0.50%. The terms "sweet" and "sour" originated from the practice of nineteenth century prospectors who would literally taste or smell the crude to determine its quality. ...

Thanks to a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, we now know what 170-year-old champagne (kept in near perfect aging conditions) tastes like! Tasters described the aroma of the champagne - likely the oldest ever imbibed - as spicy, smoky, and leathery.

At 9% alcohol by volume, it was significantly less alcoholic than the modern version, which contains about 12% alcohol, likely due to a less efficient fermentation process. The researchers also found traces of chemicals from wood, suggesting that the champagne was fermented in barrels.

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/04/what-does-170-year-old-champagne-taste?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook ...

If you've been fortunate enough to fly on an airplane, you've probably noticed that the food tastes a bit strange. It turns out that it's not actually because of the food itself (even if you are sitting in economy) but the reduced atmospheric pressure on board and the dry nose and mouth we get from flying, says an expert.