An urban myth about coffee

I was recently asked this question: Will coffee kill your taste buds?

I've looked around a bit. While I have found many online forums that suggest that both coffee and spicy food can kill your taste buds, I have found no evidence confirming these hypotheses. My guess is that some compounds in coffee may saturate receptors for certain tastes for a period of time after one drinks coffee, decreasing additional gustatory (taste) sensation. It is also possible that you simply get used to the taste of the bitter compounds in coffee and can tolerate more (think moving from coffee ice cream to coffee to espresso). Scientists have also noted that a diminished sense of smell as we get older may also decrease our ability to taste as well.

The upshot: coffee, by itself, does not kill taste buds.

I'll leave you with an article on this interesting coffee study. Coffee apparently can cause people to hallucinate.