Record household sour and tangy preferences and distinguish bitterness

The short answer

Sour and bitter are two different basic tastes. Tart and tangy are everyday descriptive words that people often use for sharp, acidic flavors. When family members disagree about a dish, write down the exact word each person uses instead of putting everyone on one shared sourness scale. Then serve a shared, undressed base and offer the dressing, or the sharp addition, on the side so each person can choose how much to add.

Sour, bitter, tart and tangy: what each word points to

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders lists sour and bitter as distinct basic taste qualities, along with sweet, salty and umami. Tart and tangy are not on that list. The institute also describes flavor as broader than taste. Flavor combines taste with aroma, texture, temperature and other chemical sensations. So when someone says a dish is "too much," the cause may be more than acidity.

Sour: Liz Walter's vocabulary article for the Cambridge Dictionary blog uses lemon juice as the example.
Bitter: the same article uses strong coffee as the example. Bitterness is a different taste from sourness, not a stronger form of it.
Tangy: Walter describes it as a positive word for a strong, sharp flavor, illustrated by a lime dressing. A person who calls a dressing tangy is usually telling you they enjoy it.
Tart: Walter's article does not define it. In Katie Workman's vinaigrette method, "too tart" describes a dressing with too much vinegar for its oil, and the fix is more oil. Treat the word as that person's report about acidity in that dish.

These are explanations of how people use the words, not measured taste thresholds. Two people can taste the same dressing and choose different words. That difference is the reason to record each person's own word.

A simple preference worksheet

Keep one row per person per dish. Record sour, tart, tangy and bitter as separate words exactly as the person said them. Do not convert them into one combined score. The rows below are a made-up example to show the format.

Dish	Eater	Their own flavor words	Preferred intensity	Dressing or addition	Mixed in or separate	Next-meal choice
Green salad	Diner A	"tangy, good"	stronger	lemon vinaigrette	mixed in	keep as is
Green salad	Diner B	"a bit tart"	milder	lemon vinaigrette	separate	serve on side, milder ratio
Green salad	Diner C	"bitter"	none stated	none	declined	ask which ingredient tasted bitter

Diner C's word changes the follow-up. Bitter is a different taste from sour, so a milder vinaigrette may not address it. The bitterness could come from the greens, another ingredient, or something other than taste, such as aroma or texture. Ask what tasted bitter, and log that answer in its own entry.

Deciding what to serve on the side

Here is a hypothetical case. One diner wants the dressing tossed through the whole salad. Another wants it on the side. A third does not want any dressing.

Make one shared base with no dressing.
Toss a portion with dressing for the diner who wants it mixed in.
Put a small container of the same dressing on the table for the diner who prefers it on the side.
Serve the third diner the plain base.
After the meal, note each person's reaction in the worksheet before you change anything for the next dinner.

Change one thing at a time between meals, such as the dressing ratio or the type of citrus. That way the next set of reactions tells you which change made the difference.

Adjusting a vinaigrette's strength

Katie Workman's vinaigrette guidance gives two useful starting points. A 3:1 ratio of oil to vinegar makes a milder dressing. A 2:1 ratio makes a stronger one. If the dressing tastes too tart, she suggests adding oil. If it tastes too oily, she suggests adding vinegar.

Milder (3:1):   3 teaspoons oil + 1 teaspoon vinegar
Stronger (2:1): 2 teaspoons oil + 1 teaspoon vinegar

This arithmetic only shows how Workman's ratios work in small amounts. It does not predict which ratio any family member will prefer. For a citrus version, Workman combines lemon juice with an equal amount of unseasoned rice vinegar. She also names orange and lime as options. If two people disagree about citrus dressing, one approach is to make a small batch of each strength and serve both on the side. Their reactions then go straight into the worksheet.