PMS

I love Sabra hummus with pine nuts.  I love the flavor and the creamy texture. But of course pine nuts are not really nuts.  They are seeds, from various kinds of pine trees from around the world.   So why do we call them pine nuts?  They should be called pine seeds.  Someone should write a letter about that!

There is a rare condition some people get a day or two after eating pine nuts, called metallogeusia.  Do you have any idea what that means?  If you do, hats off to you.  I had to google it.  It is a lasting taste disturbance in which one has the taste of metal in their mouth.  In the case of "Pine Mouth Syndrome"  (or PMS) it can last as long as 2 weeks after eating the offending pine seeds. Yechh.

In reading about this weird condition, I learned a whole bunch of  -geusia words!  Cacogeusia (any bad taste that isn't usually associated with what you ingested), hypogeusia (diminished sense of taste) and ageusia (no sense of taste).  I didn't find Hummugeusia anywhere, so I guess no one has reported a lingering taste of hummus from eating something else, like, Thin Mints.  (Hmm, why is THAT on my mind?)  I wouldn't mind a short case of chocogeusia or steakogeusia myself, though.