an acquired taste

acquired taste

Something, especially food or drink, that is unpleasant at first, but which becomes (or will become) more enjoyable over time. I once thought sushi was totally gross, but I've found that it's something of an acquired taste.
See also: acquired, taste
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

an acquired taste

If someone or something is an acquired taste, you do not like them at first but may start to like them when they are more familiar. Tibetan tea is most definitely an acquired taste. This author is an acquired taste and even her most devoted admirers will find A Spanish Lover difficult to read.
See also: acquired, taste
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

an acquired ˈtaste

a thing which you find unpleasant or do not appreciate at first but which you gradually learn to like: Whisky is an acquired taste.
See also: acquired, taste
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • acquired
  • acquired taste
  • not half bad
  • (it's) not half bad
  • I wouldn't say no
  • I wouldn't say no (to something)
  • I wouldn't mind (something)
  • I wouldn't mind...
  • the cat's pajamas
  • the cat's whiskers/pyjamas
References in classic literature
Alcohol was an acquired taste. It had been painfully acquired.
All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh.
Having wowed us in 2014 with his superb horror, It Follows, writer, director and producer David Robert Mitchell has created an intoxicating freaked-out parody of the self-involved lunacy of LA, and though definitely an acquired taste, I loved every messed-up mental minute.
Sheep cheese is an acquired taste, say Americans.Listen to the podcast:During their time in Slovakia, Paul and Lynette Doege also visited the northern region of Orava.
"I am a bit of an acquired taste" Broadcaster Piers Morgan "They're not all idiots.
"They're an acquired taste," the ice cream maker said.
SCOTLAND'S national dish has been given a new twist - and it might be a bit of an acquired taste.
I understand that not everyone appreciates Patti Smith's music, and some might call it an acquired taste, but for those of us to whom it speaks on a primal level, there is nothing like it.
A book that I think may be rather an acquired taste for adults, I am sure it will however be popular to a wide range of older primary aged children, many of which will already be attuned to computer games where individuals are matched against each other.
Cowboys-and-Indians antics have rarely been more antic than they are in "Bone Tomahawk," a gleefully grisly genre gazpacho that matches a rousing sense of Old West derring-do to a comic sensibility as dark as chewing tobacco--and at least as much of an acquired taste. But for those with a head for loopily discursive humor (not to mention a stomach for some inspired grotesquerie), S.
Haifa's style is an acquired taste, but her critics thought this particular number was OTT for a concert in the conservative northern coast of Egypt.
Though for some people kimchi is an acquired taste, making it proved to be a lot of fun.
Second, it's difficult to realize when you're being educated in a taste--in which case, an acquired taste can be a surprise and have the effect on consciousness of a discovery taste.
But Jeeves and Wooster is an acquired taste - a bit like Marmite one might say, and one that didn't sit well with me.
Ok, fine, maybe they're an acquired taste and all that.