With Twain's quote you may just have done yourself out of a debate.
When it's said that something is an acquired taste, it generally means that one's attitude or taste buds or sense of smell (or ...) require "educating" through experience. Certain tastes (literally) are warnings that something isn't quite right, is toxic, and the like. Many of the latter entail a genetic predisposition which, unless and until it's overcome (assuming that it's not fatal), considerable experience. The most clearcut example is the class of alkaloids, which are extremely bitter and usually deter all but the most determined.
Some tastes have a maturational component, changing from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, often without the need for experience. Remember your distaste of various veggies, the refusal of which at the dinner table often ended badly?
Who would have thought that willow bark would have so many medicinal uses. And what might have possessed the poor shmuck who first tried chewing it?
It's an interesting and intriguing world.
