Things that temporarily damage your taste

[mosshorn]

Well these past few weeks for me have been horrible tea-wise since I've had a sinus infection. It takes away a lot of my tasting abilities, but does anyone else have annoying things that hurt their tea-sensing abilities? I have two more that just happened too:

scratched up the roof of my mouth with crusty bread
burnt tongue

[beecrofter]

Chemotherapy really screws it up.

[JRS22]

On a less serious note - eating grapefruit, even with honey.

[Cael]

Brushing your teeth.
I also hate it when you burn your tongue and it ruins your sense of taste.
Throwing up temporarily messes up your sense of taste.
So does being sick with a stuffed nose.

That is a preliminary list for the things that pop off the top of my head.

[auhckw]

Wasabi
Spicy Food
Minty Food

[nickE]

Coffee tends to stay on my breath for hours after I drink it.

[iannon]

a whole bag of salt and vinegar potato chips..not that *I* would eat a whole bag...just sayin...

[IPT]

Chocolate really messes up my taste when it comes to Shupu! I guess it's a good thing I can't get chocolate here.

NO, WAIT! That's not right.

I miss chocolate!

[wyardley]

I find that pungent spices like garlic, onion, chives can really bring out certain unpleasant characteristics (excessive astringency) and dampen more pleasant ones. Especially with greener oolongs, I find that these flavors make it harder for me to taste tea properly for quite a few hours.

Rich T mentioned once that a tea seller told him that banana makes teas taste better than they actually are.

[David R.]

I stopped smoking some time ago. Though it happens on rare occasions that I smoke one cigarette. It is then useless for me to try to drink some tea. I feel nothing.

[Alex]

spicy food. I love really hot chilli sauce.......its a sickness.

[Fredrik]

Having a cold
Stress

[SlientSipper]

Being Drunk doesn't really help I noticed.

[TokyoB]

Pineapple and kiwi fruit.

[Peacock]

Food in general. Thats why I don't eat and drink tea at the same time.