Bitter is a flavor too

Bitter is a flavor too. 

I tend to forget this. After a childhood of sweets and soda and root beer floats, I think somewhere along the way I started to believe that sweet means flavor, while bitter means no flavor. 

But bitter is a flavor too. There are complexities and lingering anomalies in a bitter flavor that you can’t get in other flavors. Arugula’s bitterness brings a delicious complexity to a salad or a sandwich. Char on the outer layer of a steak brings a bitterness that balances out the rest. 

Maybe I started to believe this about life. That peace and quiet and happiness and laughter are life’s “flavor,” while stress and sadness and annoyance are the absence of flavor. I’m trying to unlearn this. Stress and sadness and annoyance aren’t necessarily things to be avoided at all costs. Stress means we’re passionate. Sadness means we care. Annoyance means we’re sacrificing something. A life that avoids these things misses the benefits of having a passion, loving someone, or helping someone in need. 

It may be an acquired taste, but bitter is a flavor too.