Unexpected sensations can be hard for us to swallow

Sarah Van Der Kley and Martin Good.

Our brains are clever things aren't they? Apparently the reason we often don't like a song until we've heard it a couple of times is because our brains like to know what tune is coming next; if we can anticipate the next notes we're more likely to enjoy the song.

Same thing with our taste buds.

Often you anticipate what something will taste like before you put it in your mouth and look forward to it. So when it turns out the thing in your mouth is nothing like what you expected, it can be quite a shock.

My Dad recently had this unfortunate experience when I (feeling a headache coming on) reached for my little jar of Neurofen while driving.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dad tip out a couple of pills and pop them in his mouth. About 30 seconds later he exclaimed "Ugh, these are disgusting!"

I asked him what he meant, (was he expecting pain killers to taste good?) and he replied "These are the worst mints I've ever tasted!"

On the plus side he was pain free for a good four hours afterwards. Something like this has probably happened to us all at some stage and we asked our listeners this week if they'd had a similar experience.

The replies were priceless.

One person ate a scoop of what they thought was avocado only to discover it was wasabi.

Others have mistaken malt vinegar for Coke, rock salt for crushed ice and one poor woman ate possum dog roll thinking it was a meat patty.

Jennie was given a box of chocolates and saved the strawberry ones for last as they're her favourite.

She was eating one very slowly one day, savouring the crystallised taste when she suddenly saw ants crawling everywhere and realised the grit in her mouth wasn't crystallised strawberries but live ants.

Our favourite story though came from Shell who likes to hike in the Kawekas. After building up a good sweat, she asked her hiking buddy to pass her the water bottle from her backpack.

It was only after she took a massive swig that she realised her mate had not passed her the bottle filled with water, but rather the bottle she'd planned to drink later that night ... which was filled with gin. No doubt the rest of that walk was a very "interesting" experience!

- Don't miss Martin Good and Sarah Van Der Kley on The Hits Hawke's Bay from 6am to 9am Monday to Friday.