Love it, hate it -- The science behind taste

There are all kinds of foods that kids don't like or won't eat, and although most of those disappear as people get older, as adults we all still have a variety of different taste preferences. For example brussell sprouts are famously on the "yuck!" list due to tasting strong and bitter, but then there are some who really like them. So how is it that certain people taste bitterness when others don't? Is it all in our heads, or is there another explanation?

Researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas are looking into it and finding variations in the genes responsible for bitter-taste receptors, which they believe account for different people liking different things.

So I always thought beer, another one of the examples of "bitter" flavors, was an acquired taste, but maybe there's more to it than that.