An acquired taste is an appreciation for something unlikely to be enjoyed by a person who has not had substantial exposure to it. It is the opposite of innate taste, which is the appreciation for things that are enjoyable by most persons without prior exposure to them. e.g sweet.

In case of food and drink, the difficulty of enjoying the product may be due to a strong odor (such as certain types of cheese, durian, or stinky tofu), taste (as in alcoholic beverages, coffee, bitter teas, liquorice/salty liquorice, unsweetened chocolate, soused herring, haggis), mouthfeel (such as sashimi and sushi すし featuring uncooked seafood), appearance, or association (such as eating insects or organ meat).

notorious: 臭名昭著的, infamous; nefarious: criminal, evil, immoral, unlawful, wicked

The following items can be described as "acquired tastes", often due to combination of both unfamiliarity and intensity of taste. In principle, though, anything for which one can have a taste, can also become an acquired taste. An acquired taste is distinguished by how one comes to have the taste, not what the thing in question is.
Absinthe, a strong herbal spirit, often with pronounced anise and bitter (wormwood) flavors
Aloe vera, a type of plant whose inner pulp is sometimes used in drinks, very common in Japan
Anchovies, small fish cured in brine, known for their intensely strong flavor, often used as a pizza topping [Ross doesn't like it]
Andouillette, a French tripe sausage
Artichoke
?! Balut, a boiled, fertilized duck egg
Beondegi, steamed or boiled silkworm pupa, popular in Korean cuisine
Beer, especially strong ales and stouts
Bitter melon, an extremely bitter fruit similar to cucumber
Blood sausage, sausage made by cooking animal blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled
Brussels sprout [Sheldon can't digest it]
** Cauliflower
** Caviar, a prized delicacy consisting of salted roe (fish eggs) from sturgeon
Century egg, a specially preserved Chinese egg
Chamoy, heavily-salted Mexican plum or apricot paste with chili powder
** Strongly-flavored cheeses, such as Blue cheese, Gamalost, Goat cheese, or Limburger
Chili pepper the common source of "hot" spices.
Chitterlings (commonly referred to as chitlins), boiled or stewed pig intestines
Cilantro, (also known as coriander), some people perceive an unpleasant "soapy" taste and/or a rank smell. This is believed to be a result of an enzyme that changes the way they taste coriander leaves (a genetic trait).
88 Clamato, a drink made primarily of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and reconstituted dried clam broth, with a dash of high fructose corn syrup, and USDA Red 40 to maintain a 'natural' tomato colour
Coffee, a bitter beverage prepared from roasted coffee seeds
?! Cow Cod Soup, Jamaican bull penis soup
Cow tongue
Cup cheese, a Pennsylvania Dutch runny cheese, sharp or mild, having roughly the color and consistency of snot
Dark chocolate, processed chocolate that has little or no added sugar or milk, and therefore has a bitter taste.
Dijon mustard
** Durian, a pungent southeast Asian fruit
Eel, seafood, an Anguilliform
Eulachon grease, extracted from eulachon fish
Feet, of cow, calf, pig, duck, chicken, camel, goat, etc.
Fernet, a particularly strong, grape based, herbal digestif
** Fish Sauce, a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment
** Gravlax, raw-marinated salmon
Gull eggs, eaten boiled and popular in Scandinavia and some partes of Scotland and Ireland
Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish mainly consisting of minced sheep offal, boiled in a sheep's stomach. [awful]
Hákarl, putrefied Iceland shark
Head cheese, a dish made of meat from an animal's skull covered with gelatin (usually set in a mold)
Huitlacoche, fungus-infected maize, popular in Mexico
Insects, including grubs, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, etc.
** Islay whisky, Scotch whisky made on Islay, known for its distinctive peaty character
Jägermeister, a strong German herbal digestif
Jiló, bitter fruit (cooked as a vegetable) popular in Brazil
Kimchi, traditional Korean dish of fermented chili peppers and vegetables, usually made from Chinese cabbage
Kola Nut, an extremely bitter nut used in West Africa
?! Kutti pi, an Anglo-Indian dish consisting of goat fetus
Liver and/or liverwurst
Lapsang souchong, smoked Chinese black tea
Lobster tomalley, the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, that fulfills the functions of both the liver and the pancreas.
Lutefisk, Nordic lye-soaked whitefish
Marmite, Vegemite or Cenovis, spreads made from yeast extract
Mate, the infusion of yerba mate
Moxie, a bitter carbonated beverage containing gentian root extract
Mugicha, or barley tea, which is a popular Japanese beverage
Edible Mushrooms, a mushroom that can potentially be safely eaten.
** Nattō, Japanese fermented soybeans
Octopus, seafood, a cephalopod
** Olives, fermented or cured fruit of the olive tree, come in different varieties and have a salty, bitter, oily taste. [and sour]
Organ meats, whether tripe, brains, eyeballs, giblets, liver, sweetbreads, etc.
Peanut butter
Pickled eggs
Pickled pigs feet
Pork rind, the cooked skin of a pork
Pu erh, a compressed, aged tea dominated by strong, earthy overtones
Rivella, a Swiss carbonated soft drink. It is made from whey, also known as milk plasma.
** Root beer, an herbal flavored soft drink
?! Rocky Mountain oysters, testicles of bull or boar
?! Prairie Oysters, testicles of a bull, calf, or deer. Term originates from Canadian Prairies.
Salmiak Drop, Finnish/Dutch ammonium salt liquorice candy [ammonia: 氨水]
Sea Cucumber [海参]
Sea urchin
** Scotch whisky, a woody tasting alcoholic substance.
Scrapple, a slab of leftover pork parts.
Smalahove, the head of a lamb
** Stink Bean, beans bearing a rather peculiar smell, quite popular in southeast Asia
** Stinky tofu, a form of fermented tofu, which, as the name suggests, has a strong odor.
Sun dried tomatoes
?! Surströmming, Swedish fermented Baltic herring
Sushi, a Japanese food sometimes made with raw fish and sashimi
Switchel, an Anglo-caribbean summer drink based on vinegar and molasses, also called Haymaker's Punch
Tempeh, a fermented food made from soybeans popular in Southeast Asia
** Tonic water, carbonated water flavored with quinine, giving the beverage its bitter taste.
** Tobacco, Smoked, chewed, etc ; some also claim Cannabis is an acquired taste.
Unicum, a Hungarian herbal bitter
** Wasabi, and similarly Horseradish, due to their pungent odors and strong taste [寿司芥末]
** Wine and fortified wine [sherry/port + wine]

The process of acquiring a taste can involve developmental maturation, genetics (of both taste sensitivity and personality), family example, and biochemical reward properties of foods. Infants are born preferring sweet foods and rejecting sour and bitter tastes, and they develop a preference for salt at approximately 4 months. However, vegetables tend to be a favourite as they start to learn to feed themselves. Neophobia (fear of novelty) tends to vary with age in predictable, but not linear, ways. Babies just beginning to eat solid foods generally accept a wide variety of foods, toddlers and young children are relatively neophobic towards food, and older children, adults, and the elderly are often adventurous eaters with wide-ranging tastes.

**代表个人有体验，but there's no accounting for taste.

六级/考研单词: inborn, odour, beverage, insect, notorious, wicked, seldom, herb, pronounce, flavor, outer, cure, pizza, sausage, cuisine, ale, melon, digest, cauliflower, delicacy, paste, powder, goat, pepper, spice, rank, trait, dash, roast, bull, mild, thereby, grease, extract, calf, sauce, derive, salmon, hamburger, shark, skull, mold, whisky, vegetation, cabbage, nut, liver, cavity, fulfil, mate, edible, mushroom, olive, peanut, pork, compress, dominate, lamb, bearing, peculiar, vinegar, punch, tobacco, chew, likewise, fortify, mature, biochemistry, infant, sour, elder

近/反义词: attain, earn, gain, get, obtain, procure, realize, reap, secure, win; forfeit, forgo, forego, lose, miss
比较: accrue, procure; attain, obtain, retain; acquire, enquire, inquire, require