Bitterness is a complex emotion. It contains currents of resentment and pain, but also some degree of pleasure.
People seek out a bitter flavor in their food and drink, after all. Bitterness isn’t easy to take, but it also helps cut through sweetness, which can be cloying.
Bitterness suggests a reality that’s out of pace with our hunger. It’s found in fruit that hasn’t quite ripened as well as in food that has been allowed to go past its prime to the point of fermentation.
The emotion of bitterness holds the feeling that things could have been different, but finds an uncomfortable discomfort in itself as well, in the feeling of justification for standing apart from the aesthetic of the simply happy.
To put a fine point on it, there’s the extra granularity of feeling bittersweet, an emotion that places just a bit more emphasis on the enjoyable aspects of the harsh reaction bitter things provoke. Sweetness and bitterness are more often companions than adversaries.
