Another random question: ink

[Hex]

Um... does anyone know what ink tastes like?

(the sort of ink they print newspapers with, ideally, but I'd settle for any kind of ink).

Please, someone, know. The alternative is for me to do the research. Bleurgh.

 

[Boneman]

Ask Cruella de Ville - she was expelled from school for drinking ink... I asked an acquaintance who worked for the Daily Mail, and he says it's mostly sulfurous - nowadays they use acrilics, and he doesn't know what they taste of...

 

[Hex]

Sulfurous? So it'd smell and taste like eggs? (sort of). I would ask Cruella de Ville but I have temporarily mislaid her number...

 

[chrispenycate]

Did you never get your tongue black chewing the school pens (the ones you had to dip into an inkwell)? Not particularly nice, but not easy to compare with anything you are supposed to ingest either. I suspect, from the smell of very young newsprint, that the solvents in modern synthetic inks are quite a lot nastier, and I'd prefer to avoid doing the experiment, thank you.

Stick to fountain pen inks; not pleasant, but at least we know they're not lethal, due to the large number of people who've absorbed them, and are still around.

 

[Glitch]

Hex it sounds like you could make it up and no one would know the difference

A safer experiment might be to rip off a piece of newspaper and put it on your tongue. You won't actually ingest it and the taste will be mostly influenced by the paper - but gives you something to describe.

 

[Mouse]

Sort of tastes like metallic poison. But... I'm a super taster so I taste things weirdly anyway. Was eating tomatoes and pickled onions earlier - tasted like strawberries.

 

[The Judge]

Well, either my taste buds have atrophied, or modern Quink is pretty tasteless. Not that I've drunk it, just licked inky fingers, so the issue of quantity might play a part.


EDIT: makes a mental note never to eat at Mouse's house...

 

[Hex]

I like that idea, Glitch! (a lot more than I like the idea of drinking any sort of ink -- I'm sure I have tasted it -- I did once have a squeezy fountain pen thing -- but I can't remember). Perhaps I'll go for words like 'acrid' and hope no one who regularly drinks ink reads the story...

Edit: oooh! More answers. Metallic poison is good. Maybe I'll go and lick some Quink...

 

[allmywires]

I'd describe it as bitter. Don't know if ingesting gel pens (oh the early 2000s!) really counts though.

 

[Mouse]

EDIT: makes a mental note never to eat at Mouse's house...

Ha! I also discovered that coleslaw and pickled onions tastes vaguely of dentists. Was weird.

(I was eating a salad, by the way!)

Hex, I've just Googled 'what does ink taste like' and some of the answers were 'metallic' so maybe it's not just my tastebuds after all!

Don't ask me how I know what poison tastes like.

 

[Hex]

Hmm. When I googled it I got a ton of rubbish. Metallic is good, though. Thank you. As is bitter -- thanks amw.

(like TJ, I'm a bit concerned about the strawberries Mouse has been eating).

 

[Mouse]

Linky: http://www.nanowrimo.org/forums/reference-desk/threads/36855

Hey, I only eat English strawberries!

 

[alchemist]

Hmm. When I googled it I got a ton of rubbish. Metallic is good, though. Thank you. As is bitter -- thanks amw.

(like TJ, I'm a bit concerned about the strawberries Mouse has been eating).

I'm more concerned about the dentists she's been eating.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm not going out to the press area to drink ink for you, Mouse!

But I do lick my fingers to wipe the ink off on a regular basis, and it doesn't taste like much of anything -- possibly a tiny bit salty/sharp. We use soy-based inks.

It doesn't smell like anything, either -- and we have it on everything, including ten years' worth (in this building) ground into the floor, and large squid-like blobs spilled behind the ink totes from when they hooked them up to the pipes.

 

[Lilmizflashythang]

If you ask no further questions, I can answer this for you.

Ink is nasty. It's horrible and tests your gag reflex. You would not be making a habit of eating it. There is no other flavor that you can relate it to.

Believe it or not, I know some people who like it. Just print something off and try it.

 

[hopewrites]

I'm with Alchemist, eating dentists doesn't sound like the best thing for your teeth. It is my opinion that ink, like salsa, increases in nastyness the more one eats it. I prefer blue ink to black, its tang is sharper and more metallic. I don't like red, it tastes violent. Purple has more of a dusky flavor. Yellow is vile and lingers for days like an aftertaste you can't forget.

Different papers taste different too but they were more subtle and didn't leave as lasting an impression in my mind.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Found this :-

http://www.pendemonium.com/ink_facts.htm

And I thought there was Stephens or Quink.

If memory serves, and it's getting thin nowadays, the ink I tasted in my younger days, (cheap school ink on the fingers etc.) tasted a bit like blood. I assume this has something to do with the iron content although given the extensive list in the link above there will as many tastes as there are inks.

Chewing newspaper (dried ink) :- to me the taste is dominated by the paper rather than the ink/newsprint.

 

[Bowler1]

I am one of those people who liked ink, as a kid I went through an ink phase. This was the 70's and I have not repeated the phase since so if the formula has changed I can't help you.

Metalic, sort of like a blood taste but thicker and stronger. Not very pleasant in taste but not all that bad. Can feel slimy if you get a big mouthful, especially with ball point pens which have very thick ink. You get great reactions when you smile, well when your 7 you do anyway.

It was a kiddy phase this ink, one I don't plan to repeat.

 

[ctg]

I love to read all confessions. You lot are so weird and I love that. LOL. Back in the days when I used to ink blueprints I also had to taste ink but I never developed a habit to eat it regularly and I certainly didn't think about eating dentists. What I would say about ink is that it varies on taste, some are milder than others, but they all taste metallic, poisonous and mostly unpleasant ... and also ink never tastes like chicken.

 

[Hex]

I agree, ctg. It's fantastic to find out what people got up to. And thank you very much for the information. I'd like to stay away from blood or I'll be verging on vampire (*) territory. Metallic and poisonous is great.

('she sat up, spitting out a mouthful of ink. What astonished her more than the fall, more than the capture itself, was that the ink tasted nothing at all like chicken.')

(*) The unwritten Gilderoy Lockhart book, 'Verging on Vampires'.