Objective Taste
We talk of “taste” as a quintessentially “subjective” thing, belonging to a hidden inner world, unbeholden to criticism and argument from outsiders; but I think we do ourselves a disservice by seeing it that way.
Qualifying “Taste”
As I’m writing this, I’m baking a ready-made ham-and-mushrooms pie1. I expect to enjoy this pie, because I like ham and mushrooms and I’m very favorable towards the brand, especially their pies2. But I don’t expect my brother to like it; he hates mushrooms. You can certainly say that mushrooms are not to his taste, and certainly that’s subjective, it’s an interesting fact about my brother, as an individual.
But that’s a fact about how my brother relates to mushrooms; knowing this tells me nothing about the pie. If I had my brother taste twenty pies, he would like some of them and dislike others, but knowing that he dislikes all the ones with mushrooms teaches me nothing new, tells me nothing about which pies I might enjoy.
So, that kind of taste is not what I want to talk about today.