I wish I liked olives.

[Mysterian]

You see people in the park gaily downing olives on picnics, or knocking back handfuls as passengers on classy looking white boats on the river, and they look to be having a ball. I love Italian and Spanish food, so much of which is strewn with olives tossed over by the chef. You can get nice looking drinks with olives bathing in them, but I just don't like them. I want to like them. I want to enjoy the olive eating lifestyle that goes with them, but they just taste pooey to me.
Same with coffee. All kinds of exciting blends and erotic names for cup sizes, but to me it's all just stinky bitterness.

What foods would you like to like?

Both are an acquired taste, you need to stick with it!

Avocado for me. Everyone else seems to love it. I'm really not a fussy eater but it just tastes of nothing to me.

Try kalamata olives - they're the best in my opinion.
I don't like green olives at all, black are ok. Kalamata olives are a purple colour and a different proposition all together.

You can train yourself to like them. I hated olives for the first 5 years or so after trying them. Then I decided it was time to grow up and enjoy them. I tried a few different types and found that actually they could be good, now I absolutely love them.
Coffee you just have to find the strength that works for you. I’m about mid range and like an Americano with hot milk. You just have to experiment and again train you’re palate.

Oh and yes I second Kalamata olives, they are amazing in a salad!

Eww..olive just taste Like salt water to me.

Ugh I’m with you. I bloody loathe olives. Lots of people seem to ‘train’ themselves to like them. Which is so weird! Why?! Coffee in the other hand, I bloody love. The stronger the better!

I've tried a few times to enjoy olives. Blurghhh! I've 'enjoyed' them once, after a few drinks but on trying them soon after minus the alcohol, I remembered how much I dislike them!

I do love my coffee though!

I wish I like nuts. Apparently they are a healthy filling snack, diets always substitute biscuits and crisps for nuts.

...and nuts. Especially peanuts. They're squeaky on the teeth.

I have exactly the same feelings re. olives. I feel like I'm not a proper grown up because I don't like them. Same with whisky. Horrible burning stuff, but I would love to be able to drink it.

My better half thinks they taste like Germolene. However, find the right ones and he enjoys them. Love them myself. Salty pungent goodness. Yum.

Whisky is rank though.

I've always loved olives since I was a baby. I don't like onions though which is a massive PITA and I really wish I did.

Mayo. Disgusting work of the devil. But you always have to remember when you order a burger or sandwich or whatever to tell them not to smother it in the stuff. Would be so much more convenient if I liked it. I could eat all the potato salads that inevitably turn up at all those (pre-Covid) buffets and BBQs too.

Hot milk with sugar, and a little bit of coffee. Build up from there.

I also can't stand olives. Yuck.

Beer. I always think how nice it would be on a nice hot day to have a cold refreshing beer. Except I hate it.

I love oliv

Olives !

The nicest olives are Perello gordal olives. They are meaty and savoury but not too salty or bitter.

Coffee. All the different combinations look like such fun. Hate drinking it.

Love eating chocolate covered espresso beans though.

I like the stuffed olives. Perhaps try those OP. Pimento stuffed ones are easy to find (well where I live they are) but my most favorite is a garlic stuffed olive. It's a whole clove inside. 😊

I recently tried whiskey again. As I'm old now so I assumed by now I might have acquired a taste for anything and everything. Still bloody awful stuff.

It's just as bad as caramel. I cannot abide the taste of it. Seriously limits my chocolate choices sadly.

I agree OP. I feel so unsophisticated when I see an olive bar in a grocery market. There’s one I saw in Kensington about 10 years ago and there must have been over 20 varieties of olives. Completely wasted on me.

Agree with missyB1 - olives are like when you start smoking as a teenager. It's gross but you stick with it until you're addicted.

While I agree that Kalamata olives are very good, for a beginner I think Nocellara are the best ones to try first. They are delicate and sweet, and a beautiful clear green in colour. Get the ones in oil (usually olive or rapeseed) not the ones in brine, so you are not overwhelmed with sharp salt flavour.
If your olives aren’t in olive oil, get a serving out of the jar a couple of hours before you need them, let them sit on kitchen paper to drain off the oil for half an hour or so. Then put in a small bowl and drizzle with a little good olive oil, add a well crushed garlic clove and some finely chopped herbs such as oregano or thyme if available. Stir well to coat thoroughly and leave to marinate till needed.
Pour a cocktail and savour your olives.

For coffee, the roast is important, choose a mild or light roast to begin with, and later you can move onto deeper richer roasts as your palate develops.

Try putting a spoonful of cocoa in your coffee to take the edge off the acrid bitterness.