That... is something that I've never wondered about, but now you've got me contemplating the flavor profile of various mineral aggregates.
I can tell you what coal tastes like, not that I've eaten any. But when you burn it for heat, it gets everywhere. It's bitter and kind of earthy but not like rich topsoil. More like you've been tailgating a school bus on a dirt road for hours. And the dirt is charred.
I know what granite tastes like. I love putting a granite pebble in my mouth to suck on while trail hiking. I have been doing it since I was little, at this point it's just nostalgia. Granite, after the first minute, just tastes like almost nothing really. At first though, it tends to be rather a dusty earthy flavor.
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Wait, do you get the pebbles out of the ground? Could explain the dusty, earthy flavour that wears off…
No, not out of the ground, laying on top. Did a lot of hiking in the Sierra Nevada so lots of loose granite bits just laying around.
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Tums. Tums, and other similar antacids, are calcium carbonate. Calcium and carbon. That's what makes limestone limestone.
Y'know I used to eat rocks as toddler but for the life of me I can't remember if I've had limestone and what it tasted like. Driveway gravel and those smooth river rocks on the otherhand definitely had a taste. Mostly gritty or smooth with hints of Sulphur.
I work in limestone quarries every day. The dust and grit gets everywhere, and almost every day I will get some in my mouth. Sometimes pieces that are about the size of a skittle somehow make it into my mouth (no. They do not taste like lime Skittles)
The taste isn't the problem, it's the gritty texture that makes it feel like you're grinding away at your teeth. The taste is similar to steak seasoning. I keep some unflavored gum with me and chew it when I get some in my mouth. This allows me to enjoy the salty/savory flavor while getting past the horrible texture. If only they made steak-flavored chewing gum.
I would be all over savory gum haha and thanks for the real-world/boots on the ground perspective
Why do you think it tastes savory like that? Whats in it thats giving off that flavor?
Calcium has a distinct flavor that humans crave, just the way we love the taste of umami.
edit: That's also the answer to OP question. Limestone tastes like calcium.
I was mostly joking, but I did get some oily/greasy dust in my mouth, and it tasted kind of burnt and spicy, which is why I came up with "steak seasoning"
But yes, I do actually inadvertently get limestone in my mouth often, but unfortunately (or fortunately) it really doesn't taste like anything. Maybe I will have to sample a larger size.
I might ask our geologist if she "taste tests" the rocks, according to what another commenter said...
You're reading the name wrong
It's lime's tone
It used to be green before the rain washed the colour off
When I was being taught geology the lecturers would occasionally lick a rock. I still don't know if it was a joke as most rocks taste pretty neutraock If you are interested, give it a lick, it can't do you any harm. Although bear in mind that limestones are a broad church, so you may need to lick a few to get an idea of the breadth of their taste nuances.
Unless a rock contains ores then they are usually OK to taste so branch out after that.
Taste is actually a valid and very important identifier used for classifying minerals during geology field work when there is no access to advanced diagnostic tools. For health reasons, it's obviously not the primary method, but it usually follows the "scrape test". Scraping the mineral over a known hard surface tells a whole lot about hardness, texture, color, granularity...
"A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions."
This is more something that should go to NoStupidQuestions. Your answer is that it tastes stony. Discussion ends there.
I just don't wanna see AskLemmy turn into AskReddit, is all. That sub frustrated me endlessly cause it could have been a great place for people to interact, tell interesting stories, discuss ideas and whatnot, but it turned into "do you agree with this opinion everybody here already agrees on" and "men/women, what sex do you sex the most?"
I ain't a prude, but I don't enjoy seeing something that could be a bastion for high brow content get turned into a breeding ground for boring, uninteresting slop.
Gonna take the L here since like ey, not a big issue at all lol. I just want more meaningful content than something with a single one word answer that I won't remember in 5 minutes.
Thanks for thinking through what you said before. I think you might be underestimating Lemmy users.
I wanted to say something like this myself, but I'm glad I didn't - You worded yourself better than I ever would be able to.
I find that lemmings in general is a lot less of a horny hivemind that would generate the kind of askreddit-post as described above. Sure, not everything is serious, but the occasional satire or joke post is usually light hearted and can be appreciated for what it is without fear of Lemmy devolving into the worst parts of reddit.
I just don't like low effort content being somewhere that could be a great spot for interesting, profound discussions. I'll take the L here, ain't a big issue worth getting worked up over, but I'll stand by my thoughts lol
Imma say just because you think something is low-effort doesn't mean its not interesting or pleasantly unusual, or that I didn't think people would find it enjoyable and possibly even...gasp, thought-provoking* (maybe it will be experience-provoking, does that also qualify as an ostensibly stupid question)... The top reply says he works with the stuff and it can be stony savory like steak seasoning. Whoops K turns out they were joking but the original rhetoric still applies ;)
Having said that, I agree with the guy below on a maybe better place for it but your stuff wasn't necessary nor was it likely to get me to fall in line
Yeah, I will apologize to ya for the unnecessary harshness. Could'a worded it much better than that. Leaving it as is for posterity's sake, but there was no excuse for it.
Good on ya for that, I appreciate you saying it. I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it, not because its necessarily always 100% unfounded but because my curiosity and willingness to blurt things out like this has led to some really interesting experiences and insights and I won't risk that for ideals or PerfectForm type thinking.
We won't get as big as AskReddit, but even if we did, just sort by Best/Top for whatever period. Lemmy's still got lots of catching up to do in terms of content on tye quantitative side, we've done well generally with the qualitative already by itself by virtue of the self-selection inherent to even knowing what Lemmy is and having an account no less 😉I shitposted before I knew a name for it (like fairly recent development lol) and I saw the consequences, trust me, I'm much more particular now
Would be a better fit for !shittyasklemmy@lemmy.ml but in any case, I don't mind the occasional silly question. It can be fun to try coming up with a funny response.
See, now this is how someone who wants to be effective in their communication works. Although, I'm sure someone has and would argue with basically anything I've posted so the standard is still a bit opaque :/
Nonetheless, I will experiment with that.