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You have likely eaten a bug at some point in your life. And when someone says something “tastes like cardboard,” you likely understand exactly what they mean.
However, a few unfortunate souls have had something unpleasant meet their taste buds. They’ve shared their experiences in the comments section of this Reddit question: “What’s something you’ve tasted that most humans have not?”
This list features firsthand accounts of people ingesting elephant carcasses, ladybug secretions, possum meat, and rat droppings. Some are a bit nasty, so proceed with caution.
But if you’re a fan of weird stories that can get graphic, enjoy scrolling through this list.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I was injured in a rocket attack in Afghanistan. I remember lying in the dirt and my ear felt weird, like swimmer's ear. I have sensitive ears, so I stuck my finger in my ear to try to drain it, only to have my finger come away with a thick syrupy substance. It was dark, so I couldn't see what it was, and my nose was broken and bleeding. I decided, f**k it, I licked it. It tasted mildly sweet.
It was cerebrospinal fluid. From my brain.
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#2
Literal bull s**t, straight from a bull. It's not what you think. I mean, it's not what I would think, with that first sentence, but it's every bit true.
I was riding in a pasture of heifers, looking for why they'd been freaking out, when I saw one in the middle stand up, suddenly half again the size of every other bovine in the area. Oh.
One of the young bulls somehow got out of a nearby barn and paddock overnight. So I nudged my horse forward to see if I'd lead him out, or chase him out, or maybe I'd need another cowboy if he was feeling obstinant. He wasn't.
He turned and ran, so it was the chase option, then. No big deal, we do that all the time. So I let my horse do work while I hang out on top and basically just minimize my awkward mass-offset. I was riding a trained horse, so it already knew exactly what to do.
It's called "cutting" when you herd one animal away from the others. None of this aside from the chase is germaine to the story, but it's interesting.
As we were following the bull, who was sprinting away, I watched a giant, healthy looking s**t erupt from this idiot's a**s just as he bucked and kicked both feet back in a young bull's expression of primal joy. He kicked directly through his own massive s**t, launching chunks of it directly into my face. It blasted my hat clean off.
My mouth had been open. My eyes had been open. My shirt collar was open. Everything had s**t in it. Everything I had. I found s**t in my pants pockets. My horse was covered in it.
That's one of the rare times I was unhorsed. Completely thrown. In my shock, I just lost focus and ended up on my back, retching up toward the sky. Pretty sure I swallowed some. I had to f*****g chew it just to spit it out.
Had to walk back about 1/4 mile, too. The horse just kept after the bull. They were grazing near each other when I got back to paddock.
Disturbingly sweet. I didn't expect that. Highly unpleasant.
I've never before or since heard my Dad laugh like that. I thought he was going to die from it. It's the only time I ever saw the man cry.
#3
A ladybug flew into my mouth when I was riding my bike as a kid. Ladybugs secrete a yellow bitter goop when they get eaten as a "f**k you, don't eat me" mechanism, so that happened. Had to run inside and rinse out my mouth, which didn't really help.
Edit: Wow, there are a lot of ladybug tasters in here. My people ✊️.
#4
Bronze Age cremated human bones.
Had my coffee cup standing right next to the tub I was cleaning them after excavation. Scrubbed the sediment off of it with a toothbrush and it sputtered together with tiny fractions of the bones all around and also in that coffee.
The last sip felt a little coarse and on the bottom of the cup were still white particles between the sand and coffee grounds.
#5
Moose burgers. I was a little kid, and my god, it was delicious. We were guests, and I embarrassed my parents by asking if I could have another. (They thought people would think they were starving me. Not so … it was just a damn tasty burger.).
#6
Used a glass of water to put cig butts in when I smoked. Woke up in the middle of the night desperate for a drink and swallowed 2 chuggs before I realised what was going on. It tastes even worse than you might expect.
Edit it seems from the comments many more people than I expected have drunk cig butt juice!
#7
18 Molar Sulphuric Acid
Back in the day you sucked things into a pipet. Sometime I sucked too hard. This time I got a mouth full of acid. I tasted sweet for two weeks.
#8
Inside of my mouth got burned so bad it blistered my gums and tongue so bad everything boiled up and shed eventually. Healing sucked because when I talked, I’d accidentally bite down and pop a blister…. tasted like pus. Hated that time of my life lol.
#9
Rat s**t. I used to have pet rats when I was in the uni, and I was one carrying one of them from one dorm to another. He left a few droppings in my jacket pocket he was in (it was short walk so I just put him in my roomy pocket).
I didn't notice, and few weeks later I forgot about it at all, put some nuts in the same pocket and started eating them, until one of them tasted really weird.
#10
The asphalt on the crosswalk in front of the Flatiron building in NYC. Potholes are a b***h.
#12
My pet fox peed on my face/mouth while I was asleep, so I've tasted fox pee.
I could taste it for over an hour even after rinsing my mouth. 0/10 would not recommend.
#13
Probably Rattlesnake. Not much flavor, very stringy, and has a lot of bones.
#15
Possum was really common in rural nz back in the 70s/80s it’s disgusting I was 4 and still remember the taste.
#16
Elephant🐘
For context, it wasn't hunted. It was already dead. Got hit by a train☹️
So technically, it was roadkill. So that's 2 things I guess..
#17
I was about 1 week into a 2-month stint in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, when some of the soldiers we were with dragged half of an elk into camp. By the time I left the project, I'd eaten deer, boar, elk and poultry from the Zone.
Several years on and I still have the normal amount of appendages. Don't think many people have eaten slightly-irradiated game.
#18
Witchetty grub. It looks like a fat shiny white caterpillar, an aboriginal elder came to our school when I was little (1989?ish) so we tasted bush tucker.
#20
Jesus water: water taken from a 2km well at the south pole. Ice is millions of years old, so drinking water from a time never lived.
#21
Actual battery acid, stupid I was I thought the stickyness I suddenly had on my finger was from the candy I just ate NOPE it was from the TV remote I used.
#22
Not me but someone i knew tasted radiation. It sounds weird but high intensity radiation apparently leaves a metallic taste in your mouth, as if you just licked a penny after holding it for a while. He was a chernobyl liquidator.
#23
Welp, I had a pidgeon die inside my place's water tank (it had a hole) and I drank that water for months... So I guess I had dead pidgeon tea.
#24
Well, not me, but my daughter ate a stinkt bug once... That was an intense experience... Stank on the way in...and on the way out...
#25
Pig s**t. I’m not proud of it, but sooner or later in every livestock farmers career you’re going to get some floor s**t splash about. And someday some of that splash will unfortunately hit your open mouth. And you will internally cry. God I wish I didn’t know this. It’s kinda like the smell of death tho I’ve found that to be somewhat more common.
#26
Jellyfish salad. I wasn't convinced when I first saw the dish, but I ended up liking it.
#27
Armadillo. Never meant to have it, but was staying on a farm and the dog brought it. Owner wouldn't leave it to waste. Tastes like chicken.
#28
Yew berries. The only nonpoisonous part of a tree that every other part is deadly. Including the seed inside.
Do not recommend.
#29
A prickly pear. They’re native to my country so we eat then regularly, but whenever I’ve seen someone react to it (that’s not Mexican), they just act like it’s something from another planet.
#30
Termites, and it was surprisingly good. Minty if I recall correctly, was many years ago.
#31
We grew up on a farm and my brother watched some survival TV show where they were hunting for their own food and cooking it after. He was able to catch a toad, created a fire and cooked and sliced it up afterwards. Me, as the little girl looking up to her older brother (me: 6, him: 8), of course had to taste it. I don’t think it’s really common….
#32
Dunno if this counts but I know a guy who ate a paper cup, just straight up ate a paper cup.
Lily Kramer 1 month ago
He might have a disorder called Pica. Often people missing vital nutrients will crave strange things. My mom was severely anemic and craved ice like no ones business. Once the anemia went away, so did the craving
Leoninus Fate 1 month ago
I have eaten it, it just tastes like woody paper, a lil dry, i have PICA so i normally eat on non eatable things, i could tell you most of what tastes like, oddly idk why but most people enjoy when i tell them i enjoy plastic spoons the most, there cool and lil snappy
Elephant Girl 1 month ago
As a child, I used to eat facial tissue. Clean white tissue. Torn into strips and eaten. Don't know why, but I remember enjoying it.
#33
A bat slow-cooked whole, skin, guts, and all, tossed right into the pot.
#37
Callamus root, a quasi psychadelic akin to nutmeg kind of, terrible experience all round do not reccomend.
#38
Denso tape. Health and safety be damned! I was not climbing back down that mast just for a knife.
#41
Paraffin. (Edit to add: liquid Parrafin, not wax. Lamp oil in the US? Please correct me if wrong)
Not as bad as you'd expect.. still don't recommend it.
#43
Cow s**t.
I was explaining something to fresher farm workers when the cow decided to stomp into a pile of it.
#44
Cougar and bear. Used to go hunting in Wyoming every year with my dad. The hunting guide did everything from Bears, cougars, elk, deer, bison, turkeys, prairie dogs, etc. He was one of those people who had an industrial meat grinder in the back, and his wife used most of their kills for meals in the house. He joked that he hadn’t bought beef in 20 years. Made the mistake of asking him what the weirdest meat was in his fridge. He Got the most wicked smile and came back with some homemade summer sausages. he gave me a slice and asked me if I could guess what it was. It was incredibly gamy, only thing that made it palatable was the spices he’d mixed with it. It had a very odd aftertaste that kind of reminded me of the flavor you get in your mouth after drinking diet cola. Never in 1 million years would’ve guessed it was cougar and he was dying of laughter at the look on my face when he told me. He also had some sausage made out of bear. That one was also gamy and had a very strange “butter” flavor to it, but it was not delicious like butter…
Still, it was good to know he wasn’t putting the animals to waste.
#45
Cow brains. My family in Mexico considered it a special treat. The texture was like scrambled eggs and the flavor was pretty mild.
#49
Raw "chicken of the woods mushroom" when hiking as well as raw wild gooseberries, asparagus, morel mushroom, dandelion leaves. Snapping Turtle Tenderloins. on a double dog dare, a nightcrawler worm. lol.
#50
Turtle, dugong, jellyfish, crocodile would probably be the most exotic.
What do you think ?
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 1 month ago
This needs two categories: exotic dishes and accidents. There are several entries that are not unusual for certain countries or places.
G A 1 month ago
Exotic Meats-Wild Boar, Ostrich, Catfish, Shark, Reindeer, Horse, Donkey, Deer, Crocodile, Kangaroo. And my Mum. She cut her finger and took a sliver out when making my sandwiches when I was still at school. When I got home, she asked me if my sandwiches had tasted funny and told me what had happened. So I am an accidental cannibal.
Widdershins66 1 month ago
My 2 year old niece's vomit🤮 She was sick eating her lunch at the table. I cleaned her up and settled to eat my salad but the dressing was disgusting. Yup I ate her sick 🤢🤢🤢
Tempest 1 month ago (edited)
Dust. For some reason I loved tasting dust as a kid (maybe I had pica). There would be a fine line of dust between the window sill and wall and I used to run a finger and then plop the finger in my mouth. I knew it was weird/wrong so I would make sure no one was in sight before doing it. So strange and later when I learnt that dust in an occupied house probably has human skin cells, I was so disgusted. But to date I feel tempted to taste it again. It just tastes… dusty.. like just a powder of something but I think I like that texture. Also dog slobber recently. She licked me in the face when I was talking to her.
Carl Roberts 1 month ago
Someone else's chewing tobacco spit. I was drinking a can of Coke. He was using an empty can as a spittoon. I grabbed the wrong can. It was as disgusting as you'd expect.
Leoninus Fate 1 month ago
2 I ate that was good and I recommend it, but elk jerky, and emu jerky! I bought 2 bags of each on my way to Lake Pleasant in Arizona, and a few people were selling them on the side of the street from their own lil pop-up shop/car, it was like 5 bucks each and it was so good, I ate them all before leaving the lake
Sky Render 1 month ago
When I was very young, I accidentally stumbled upon the ability to mess with my senses at will while half-asleep. I had fun with it (forcing myself to feel like I was falling, generating smells I liked, etc.), but one of the strangest things I did was mess with flavors. I don't even know if this flavor exists in real life, but it was kind of rubber-like, vaguely sweet, and had a smooth texture. My brain decided that it was blue, for unknown reasons. So I've tasted something of what REM hallucinations can generate.
KazzaHazza 1 month ago
Cat food juice. I opened a pouch, some gravy squirted into my hand and for some bizarre reason my brain thought it would be a good idea to lick it.
Dan Flo 1 month ago
I opened a back of snacks, thinking it was caramel fudge sticks. Bit into it and it was not... Looked at the bag and it said "Salmon sticks, a treat for your cat".
Load More Replies...
Justin Tyme 1 month ago
Probably not a complete list - this is all I can think of at this moment. I have consumed snake (two species), dog, sea urchin, bear, turtle, squirrel meat and squirrel brain, barbecued octopus, bovine testîcles, sautéed locusts, bullfrog legs, dandelions (leaves and flowers), clover, sweet potato ice cream, and fried cow brain sandwich.
Daniel Atkins 1 month ago
Auto antifreeze it tastes sweet. Some got in my mouth while working on a vehicle.
Traveling Lady Railfan 1 month ago
Not so uncommon (it's on a lot of ""Western" bar menus) but bull testicles. Cooked right, they're not bad at all. Like a strip of breaded fried chewy meatball with a bit of a liver/iron taste. Good with ranch dipping sauce
Kim Bailey 1 month ago
My dogs nose...he went in for a sniff while I was yawning...equally unpleasant experience for us both...we don't talk about it and 10/10 don't recommend!! :D
Arsena McIntire 1 month ago
I was sick one day and couldn't get out of bed so every time I cough I'd spit a loogie into my empty water bottle then in the middle of the night I went to take a drink of water and drink it
Stacy Ricco 1 month ago
I've had ostrich, zebra, kangaroo, caribou, reindeer, crocodile, camel, alpaca
Mad McQueen 1 month ago
Alligator once in Florida at a road side place. Gamy. Tough. No flavor. Thing it was deep fried and battered. Even that wasn't tasty. So I tried it but. Eh. Although I'll Give the secret to the best beef stew. Add deer meat. 3/4 beef 1/4 deer/venison. It's richer and old family trick
Foxglove🇮🇪 1 month ago
Soup/stew made from Danube water, catfish, pike and carp. Gave everyone diahorroea because we weren't used to the water. Shark, very dry meat. Crocodile. Ostrich. Snake. In a restaurant in Namibia, five meats including zebra and kudu, can't remember the other 3. Zebra very strong flavour, I guess horsey. The antelopes were more like venison. Reindeer. In Iceland, puffin - very dark meat, tastes like liver, and smoked blackbird (tasty). Pig testicles. Sheep brains. There might be more but I can't remember right now!
IamMe 1 month ago
I've eaten a lot of wild plants and animals, so I can't say which is the weirdest. Maybe, bearded moss. The kind that hangs from trees. I boiled it, as tea, because it's supposed to be very good for you. Lots of vitamins and minerals. The iron taste was especially strong, like blood.
Petra Schaap 1 month ago
ah thank you PB for making me get out of my chair and go do something usefull. For those of you who read the comments first: go do something usefull and/or skip this one.
Fishpanda (fish/panda/it) 1 month ago
A lot of people in this thread have had unfortunate experiences
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 1 month ago
This needs two categories: exotic dishes and accidents. There are several entries that are not unusual for certain countries or places.
G A 1 month ago
Exotic Meats-Wild Boar, Ostrich, Catfish, Shark, Reindeer, Horse, Donkey, Deer, Crocodile, Kangaroo. And my Mum. She cut her finger and took a sliver out when making my sandwiches when I was still at school. When I got home, she asked me if my sandwiches had tasted funny and told me what had happened. So I am an accidental cannibal.
Widdershins66 1 month ago
My 2 year old niece's vomit🤮 She was sick eating her lunch at the table. I cleaned her up and settled to eat my salad but the dressing was disgusting. Yup I ate her sick 🤢🤢🤢
Tempest 1 month ago (edited)
Dust. For some reason I loved tasting dust as a kid (maybe I had pica). There would be a fine line of dust between the window sill and wall and I used to run a finger and then plop the finger in my mouth. I knew it was weird/wrong so I would make sure no one was in sight before doing it. So strange and later when I learnt that dust in an occupied house probably has human skin cells, I was so disgusted. But to date I feel tempted to taste it again. It just tastes… dusty.. like just a powder of something but I think I like that texture. Also dog slobber recently. She licked me in the face when I was talking to her.
Carl Roberts 1 month ago
Someone else's chewing tobacco spit. I was drinking a can of Coke. He was using an empty can as a spittoon. I grabbed the wrong can. It was as disgusting as you'd expect.
Leoninus Fate 1 month ago
2 I ate that was good and I recommend it, but elk jerky, and emu jerky! I bought 2 bags of each on my way to Lake Pleasant in Arizona, and a few people were selling them on the side of the street from their own lil pop-up shop/car, it was like 5 bucks each and it was so good, I ate them all before leaving the lake
Sky Render 1 month ago
When I was very young, I accidentally stumbled upon the ability to mess with my senses at will while half-asleep. I had fun with it (forcing myself to feel like I was falling, generating smells I liked, etc.), but one of the strangest things I did was mess with flavors. I don't even know if this flavor exists in real life, but it was kind of rubber-like, vaguely sweet, and had a smooth texture. My brain decided that it was blue, for unknown reasons. So I've tasted something of what REM hallucinations can generate.
KazzaHazza 1 month ago
Cat food juice. I opened a pouch, some gravy squirted into my hand and for some bizarre reason my brain thought it would be a good idea to lick it.
Dan Flo 1 month ago
I opened a back of snacks, thinking it was caramel fudge sticks. Bit into it and it was not... Looked at the bag and it said "Salmon sticks, a treat for your cat".
Load More Replies... Justin Tyme 1 month ago
Probably not a complete list - this is all I can think of at this moment. I have consumed snake (two species), dog, sea urchin, bear, turtle, squirrel meat and squirrel brain, barbecued octopus, bovine testîcles, sautéed locusts, bullfrog legs, dandelions (leaves and flowers), clover, sweet potato ice cream, and fried cow brain sandwich.
Daniel Atkins 1 month ago
Auto antifreeze it tastes sweet. Some got in my mouth while working on a vehicle.
Traveling Lady Railfan 1 month ago
Not so uncommon (it's on a lot of ""Western" bar menus) but bull testicles. Cooked right, they're not bad at all. Like a strip of breaded fried chewy meatball with a bit of a liver/iron taste. Good with ranch dipping sauce
Kim Bailey 1 month ago
My dogs nose...he went in for a sniff while I was yawning...equally unpleasant experience for us both...we don't talk about it and 10/10 don't recommend!! :D
Arsena McIntire 1 month ago
I was sick one day and couldn't get out of bed so every time I cough I'd spit a loogie into my empty water bottle then in the middle of the night I went to take a drink of water and drink it
Stacy Ricco 1 month ago
I've had ostrich, zebra, kangaroo, caribou, reindeer, crocodile, camel, alpaca
Mad McQueen 1 month ago
Alligator once in Florida at a road side place. Gamy. Tough. No flavor. Thing it was deep fried and battered. Even that wasn't tasty. So I tried it but. Eh. Although I'll Give the secret to the best beef stew. Add deer meat. 3/4 beef 1/4 deer/venison. It's richer and old family trick
Foxglove🇮🇪 1 month ago
Soup/stew made from Danube water, catfish, pike and carp. Gave everyone diahorroea because we weren't used to the water. Shark, very dry meat. Crocodile. Ostrich. Snake. In a restaurant in Namibia, five meats including zebra and kudu, can't remember the other 3. Zebra very strong flavour, I guess horsey. The antelopes were more like venison. Reindeer. In Iceland, puffin - very dark meat, tastes like liver, and smoked blackbird (tasty). Pig testicles. Sheep brains. There might be more but I can't remember right now!
IamMe 1 month ago
I've eaten a lot of wild plants and animals, so I can't say which is the weirdest. Maybe, bearded moss. The kind that hangs from trees. I boiled it, as tea, because it's supposed to be very good for you. Lots of vitamins and minerals. The iron taste was especially strong, like blood.
Petra Schaap 1 month ago
ah thank you PB for making me get out of my chair and go do something usefull. For those of you who read the comments first: go do something usefull and/or skip this one.
Fishpanda (fish/panda/it) 1 month ago
A lot of people in this thread have had unfortunate experiences
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