system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why taste is subjective even though the structure of our taste buds and biology is generally similar or the same.

I understand that we can link positive memories etc and other sensory inputs with certain tastes and so on, but why does something literally taste good to some people and not to others? Does every item taste the same for everyone but different people perceive them in different ways?
gpt
A lot of how your specific taste buds work actually is controlled by your genes. For example, whether or not you like cilantro is genetic. Another example is broccoli and other similar vegetables. They have a compound in them which some people taste as bitter, while others don't, because some people have a gene which codes for a protein that interacts with this compound to make it taste bitter, while others don't. Some people are genetically predispositions to be more sensitive to salt, etc.