Changing Tastes - Covid

[naomi24]

Since having Covid over Christmas I’ve now recovered my sense of smell but I haven’t wanted to drink coffee at all. I just tried a cup and I still don’t want it. Is it usual for tastes to change with Covid? I’ve never heard of it.

[Old_Geezer]

Probably temporary. I tried a mug of real coffee, was very unimpressed. Has to go right eventually.

[roopower]

I believe this can happen, it's still early days yet. I go off coffee when I have a cold, can't bear the smell or taste of it. Hopefully you will get back to normal before too long.

[sunny-dave]

Yes - but it seemed very random - some things were absolutely unaffected but it took a while for some other things to taste 'right'.

Red wine had an off taste/smell for quite a while, but whiskey was unaffected.

Coffee (fresh brewed) tasted fine, but the appetising aroma was much reduced.

Took about a month for most things to get back to normal.

[Sqad]

Very, very common, not only with Covid but with any viral respiratory infection.
Taste might return to normal.....might not.
Nothing you can do about it to alter the end result.

[rowanwitch]

I still haven't got my sense of taste back fully after nearly three years, some things with very strong flavours are ok, but the finer nuances of taste seem lost to me forever.

[Vagus]

I went off coffee completely for about four months, and our toothpaste, oral B, tasted horrible for the same length of time.

[hellywelly4]

I’m the same. I had long Covid and still couldn’t eat a banana if you paid me. I haven’t tried coffee but might have a go tomorrow. I am gradually recovering my appetite but I lost one and a half stone because I just couldn’t eat much at all.

[tiggerblue10]

I don't think I've had covid, not that I know of anyway, but when I've had flu and bad colds I lose my sense of taste and smell. The thought of coffee when I'm ill makes me nauseous so I drink tea instead. But on a regular basis I drink two mugs of coffee before 12pm and decaf if I fancy one later.

[douglas9401]

Not just viral repiratory infections that alter or even kill taste.

30 odd years of Marlboro reds did it for me. Never came back.

[jourdain2]

From what I've heard from friends and family who have had no, or altered, taste after Covid, it comes back - but at variable time lengths.

[Atheist]

Dougie: Marlboro Lights is what you should have had! I'm still on 60 a day, and can do one-finger press-ups at the age of 76! (My tongue gets a bit tired, I must admit).

[Atheist]

And I can distinguish between Chateau Talbot 2006 and 2009.

[DTCwordfan]

I hope so, Atheist - which do you prefer taste-wise?

[Tuvok]

I never lost mine when I had it, but then only knew I had it after doing a test because a family member had it. No symptoms at all.

[Zacs-Master]

Quite common, Naomi. There was a ‘piece’ about it on the one show. Roman Kemp is a sufferer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00055-6

[pastafreak]

I know of several people who have been left without taste. One for over a year so far.

[Atheist]

DTC. My taste has been shot since well before Covid, due to long term cig smoking.
I stopped the fags 3 weeks ago and am sustaining myself with nicotine pouches (2 a day at a daily cost of 65p). My lungs are much quieter, my stride has become longer and of a more rapid cadence, and soon I hope to be skipping upstairs.
I still can't afford Talbot, so I can't honestly claim any genuine preference between 2006 and 2009.

[tomus42]

The effects of Covid seem to be a bit random, from life threatening or deadly in some people, to negligible in others, and everything in between.

I can believe it would affect taste and smell, hopefully not for long though.

[Hopkirk]

Yes. I didn't lose my sense of taste and smell until a good month after covid.
It was then all messed up, and I couldn't drink coffee for about six months or more.

There is a difference to the effect of a cold. With a cold mucus blocks the smell from reaching the receptors, but with covid it actually damages the nerves that take the messages to the brain.

[naomi24]

Thanks for your answers. I really had never heard of it.