Mucus drainage in the back of the throat is called postnasal drip. Causes of this symptom include:

Bacterial infection
Colds
Flu
Hay fever
Head injury
Nasal sprays
Sinusitis


Colds will often begin with a clear nasal discharge and can turn creamy yellow or green, which may indicate a viral infection (not bacterial).

If the symptoms last for more than 3 weeks, or if you've experienced a head injury recently, I'd suggest that you see an ENT specialist.

Thank you. I went to the doctor, as the drip was stopping me sleeping. It's just an allergy, (don't know to what) and i have been prescribed steroids

I'm glad to hear that you found a diagnosis and treatment. I hope that the steroids help...but try to avoid long term use. Maybe you can go in for allergy testing (pin-prick) to identify the possible allergic reaction and avoid that substance. Cut out the cause at the root!

- Rooted

I have had the bitter taste for 5 days now. I taste bad in the morning, and when I eat food, especially sweet food, tastes bitter. The bitter taste goes away in between meals.

I don't feel bad in any other way.

There is no mucus, I am taking no drugs, not eating anything unusual.

I don't know what causes this.

I did some googleing - it might be because I ate pine nuts. A number of people have reported this. What gives me doubt though, is that my friend ate the same pine nuts with me and she does not have any bitter taste in her mouth.

from wiki:
Risks of eating pine nuts
The eating of pine nuts can cause serious taste disturbances, developing 1-3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. In general, a minority of pine nuts on the market present this problem. Though very unpleasant, there doesn't seem to be a real health concern.
This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001.[6] Since the article, experiences of the phenomenon have been reported by hundreds of people worldwide (US, Canada, South Africa, Finland, Iceland, Germany, and many more).[7] [8]
The pine nuts involved typically contain triglycerides formed by 16-18° unsaturated fatty acids. No contamination with pesticide residues or heavy metals was found.
Some of the pine nuts involved were imported from China. However, in many countries packaged pine nuts are not required to state the country of origin or the species, and thus it is impossible to conclusively link the effect to a particular species or source country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut

OK. So what can we do about this bitter taste, which is a result of eating pine nuts. Any suggestions out there?

It goes away on it's own after a while. The bitter taste lasted for about 10 days for me. I avoided sweet foods, that tasted the worst. Foods I could tolerate included anything naturally bitter such as dandelion greens, unsweeted chocolate, unsweetened tea. I also could eat other dark leafy green vegetables, meats, poultry.

Good luck to you.

I was telling my wife how I had been having the taste of bitter in the back of my mouth for a few days and she had been having the same thing. We had been racking our brains of why.. she thought maybe because we switched toothpaste.. i thought maybe because of some hazelnut chocolates we ate...

but as soon as I saw the post about Pine Nuts.. we knew that was it. We had been eating salad.. 2 days in a row with pine nuts in it.. I was wolfing down the pine nuts with the dressing. It explained so much. thanks for finding that.. score 1 for the Internet

Every time I eat anything the food tastes bitter..

Thank you for the information about the Pine nuts, I bought a bag last week and have been eating them, now I understand what is causing this....
Thanks Selene for the information I was really getting concerned about the cause, this makes me feel lots better.

i too have the bitter tast at back of my throat. thought it might be candida as that causes bitternes but my throat was clear. no white coating. i have eaten more pine nuts than usual though recently. migth explain it. wine tastes funny too. sad

I have this bitter taste also after eating pine nuts. Did you also feel your lips were sore/dry though they didn't look dry?

I don't remember my lips feeling dry.

Just stop eating pine nuts, and it goes away after a couple weeks.

thank you Selene

For the last two days I had this bitter taste no matter what I eat, even after drinking water, and I was wondering what have I eaten to get this taste, and indeed I had pine nuts every morning and evening. And I have also dry mouth.
However I eat quite often pine nuts, I love them, but it is the first time it happens.

Yeah, I ate pine nuts for years without it happening. I guess some batches of pine nuts are bad.

I am afraid to eat them now, I must admit!

But i have everything you all are talking about BUT i HAVE NOT had pine nuts!! I wish I did eat a whole bad so this could be my answer and id be done with it.. now im worried.

The bitterness is finally gone, I will not touch another pine nut, at least from that batch. I noticed that the ones I ate are from China. I remember eating them years back and never had the bitter taste from them. I am going to experiment and see if I can find the brand that I used to buy, eat them and if there is no bitter taste find out where they are grown.

I also have had a bitter taste in my mouth for the last several days, but not eating any pine nuts! I have it all the time and food does not taste good. I live on the coast of central california. Any other ideas of what this could be? I see the dentist on Monday. And I had a flouride treatment at the dentist before this started.

I had just a few pine nuts two days ago in a salat. I hope is from the pine nuts because I can't take the taste anymore.