Oysters are usually eaten raw, undressed or with little more than lemon or vinegar, and their flavour is genuinely variable: salty, briny, buttery, metallic or fruity depending on the variety and where it was grown. The texture is soft and fleshy. Enthusiasts treat that variation as the appeal, the way people talk about wine regions. The objection is not only squeamishness about texture. Raw oysters carry a real and specific risk, and it is not evenly spread. Oysters from the Gulf Coast of the United States carry high bacterial loads in the warm months, most notably Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. For most healthy people an infection means self-limiting gastroenteritis; for immunocompromised people it can progress to sepsis, and Vibrio vulnificus is the most deadly seafood-borne pathogen there is. So a food that one person experiences as a delicacy another has been correctly advised to avoid. That is a harder disagreement to resolve than a matter of taste, and it shows up in the numbers: 43% of Americans told YouGov they dislike or hate oysters, against 31% who love or like them.