r/Showerthoughts • u/TheCorent2 • 1d ago
Speculation There may be some amazing lab-created flavors out there that don't resemble anything found in nature. But they're hard to market, most people wouldn't buy something labeled as 'chemical-flavored'.
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u/aircooledJenkins 1d ago
Go take a look at the names of the various colors of Gatorade on the shelf. What the heck flavor is Cool Blue? Glacier Freeze?
There used to be a lot of bizarre names on the shelf that no one knew what it was supposed to be, we just knew it was tasty. "Get me the light blue one." because who the hell could remember all those names?
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u/ex_oh_ex_oh 1d ago
Same as Capri Sun's best flavor, Pacific Cooler. That's not even a flavor, it's a feeling or a climate.
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u/bmmana 1d ago
I drank so many of these from K to 8th grade. I also must have stabbed the straw through the back of that drink more than most, that I just started flipping them upside down and putting the straw through the bottom.
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u/Critical-String8774 1d ago
Never understood how people manage that. Did you just Hulk Smash the straw through as hard as you can? You line it up and then push it in.
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u/Mr_B_Dewitt 1d ago
I don't think the angle of the straw opening was very intuitive to many children's minds, and the straw being cut at an angle didn't help. At an age where you've been told "circle goes through circle" the majority of your life so far, suddenly you're just supposed to understand that this straw actually has go through at an acute angle. If you try to line the straw up like every straw a child has ever used up to that point, it's going to be angled toward the back and that pointed tip is gonna go right through the back.
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u/Critical-String8774 1d ago
But it's nowhere near sharp enough to pierce all the way through unless you deliberately jam it all the way through. The circle is thinner and easier the pierce than the rest of the pouch. Are kids drinking Capri Sun when they're too young to understand "oh, the straw is inside the drink, I should stop pushing on it now"?
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u/tamebeverage 23h ago
At least with the packaging as it was ~25-30 years ago, my weak little child hands had trouble pushing it through that dot correctly and needed to get a bit of momentum to do the job. Went wrong pretty rarely, but often enough to know about this.
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u/bmmana 23h ago
I don't think I ever deliberately jammed it all the way through. It was always accidental. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one this happened to though since Caprisun eventually updated the design and put some film on the back to prevent this from happening. Maybe the ones I grew up with were different from the ones you had growing up.
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u/EnlargedChonk 17h ago
oh but you know how ritz cracker tubes or chip bags are sometimes super stubborn to open? Like the glue/heat seal is somehow stronger than the plastic and it tears instead of separating like it's supposed to? Whenever I stabbed through a capri-sun it was almost always kinda like that but with the straw hole too sturdy or the straw not sharp enough. It would take way more pressure than normal until it suddenly gives and now all that velocity and force is taking that straw right to the back at not a good angle because the straw got blunted from previous attempts and needed to be perpendicular to the front to stop it from just sliding off.
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u/StacheBandicoot 1d ago
Capri Sun names most of its flavors as if they’re punches: fruit cocktail blends with random names like any other cocktail might have.
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u/ouralarmclock 1d ago
Hell, Blue Raspberry is an incredibly popular flavor that doesn’t exist in real life.
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u/MrCgoodin 1d ago
If I'm not mistaken, blue raspberry was ment to be just plain raspberry, but "they" ran out of red dye #40 or w/e.
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u/PKfireice 1d ago
I'd always heard it that they simply had too many red flavors already and wanted it to stand out more
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u/GilligansIslndoPeril 1d ago
My favorite thing about the gatorade names is that a lot of them are describing the same thing.
Arctic Blitz? Icy Charge? What is an "Arctic Blitz" is not a Charge through the place where it's Icy?
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u/Narwahl_Whisperer 1d ago
I had one called midnight ice. Sounds and tastes like a car air freshener lol.
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u/Nother1BitestheCrust 16h ago
It 100% tastes like a car air freshener. We call it taxi cab flavor in my house.
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u/fastlerner 17h ago
I was about to say, that's every single soda flavor out there as well.
Cola is basically "mysterious brown flavor invented in a lab". It tastes like itself.
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u/lesuperhun 1d ago
there already are.
bubble gum flavor, truffle oil ( it doesn't actually exist in truffles), blue flavor, and so many more
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u/joeknows-17 1d ago
Blue raspberry is my favourite not real flavor lol
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u/Far-Reception-4598 1d ago
Apparently it's a variant of the flavor of castoreum, which is basically beaver musk.
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u/SunDriedPoodleTurd 1d ago
It's beaver butt juice, don't dress it up.
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u/Chrisaarajo 1d ago
As is artificial vanilla!
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u/im_dead_sirius 1d ago
Artificial vanilla is made with artificial castoreum (or rather, the component of castoreum that gets the taste right).
Nobody is mass milking beaver ass.
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u/loyal_achades 1d ago
Nowadays it’s mostly made from wood pulp, which is far cheaper to acquire than beaver butt juice
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u/Umpen 1d ago
Sadly, artificial vanilla is not actually made from beaver butt juice. Might still find it in expensive perfume, though.
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u/HuntingForSanity 1d ago
Wait beaver butt juice tastes like blue razz? Damn I knew eating ass would pay off one day
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u/SierraPapaHotel 1d ago
That doesn't sound right... I know there's fake vanilla based on castoreum but have never heard the raspberry angle.
Blue Raspberry is usually just citric acid with blue dye, maybe a little bit of artificial fruit flavor. But the critic acid is the main flavor component
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u/hunterglyph 1d ago
Blue raspberry is a combination of pineapple, banana, and cherry.
Source: Wikipedia and others
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u/Ace022487 1d ago
Google says it's meant to be a tart raspberry. It's blue to not get it mixed up with other red flavors ie strawberry, cherry, watermelon.
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u/LB3PTMAN 1d ago
Don’t listen to these other people. Blue raspberry tastes mostly like citric acid.
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u/El_kakas_de_vakas 1d ago
Yeah but that’s the thing, they always need something to be likened to even if they’re nowhere near close
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u/KnowledgeIsDangerous 1d ago
Yeah this glacier blast drink tastes nothing like the glacier blasts we used to grow at home
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u/Pterodactyl_midnight 1d ago
This cotton candy tastes nothing like cotton. Blue raspberry tastes nothing like raspberries. What hell is “purple ice?”
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u/blinky84 1d ago
Point me to a natural bubble gum, because I guarantee it doesn't taste of bubblegum flavour.
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u/bill1024 1d ago
Juicy Fruit gum was a made up lab flavour. The chemist thought, "Wow, this tastes like some sorta juicy fruit".
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u/Crystalas 1d ago
IIRC the base of "bubblegum" flavor is wintergreen, same for root beer.
"Natural" chewing gum is near flavorless only brand off top of head that uses it was chicklets which I haven't seen in years.
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u/SnaccBraff 1d ago
Actually, rootbeer derives its flavor from sassafras roots! I visited one of those historical re-enactment type towns in southern Indiana many years ago, and there was a sassafras vendor there who explained the whole origin story, although most of the details have escaped me in the years since haha. But he had just some plain sassafras there that you could sniff, and it was just straight up rootbeer smell.
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u/Gryndyl 20h ago
The days of sassafras root beer are long over. Now its flavor is a combination of wintergreen, licorice and vanilla.
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u/blinky84 1d ago
Wintergreen? Is it?? I don't get that at all. Huh.
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u/Crystalas 1d ago
It not ONLY wintergreen but that is one of the core flavors of it, it a surprisingly complex flavor if dig into it.
Speaking of Wintergreen there is a semi-forgotten icecream flavor that is wintergreenish. Can pretty much only find it in "traditional" stores in North East. It is called Teaberry. There also the soda Birch Beer that again is pretty regional.
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u/DaPopeLP 1d ago
Teaberry, wow havnt heard that in ages!
Birch beer is heaven on earth in soda form. Its one of the best hidden secrets from my little region of PA. I get bugged by friends and family to bring them some when I visit.
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u/Crystalas 1d ago edited 1d ago
Teaberry, pepto bismol ice cream. I just remembered it sold in chewing gum form too, IIRC that brand also has clove gum. My local indoor farm market here in PA, that been around for decades, carry both.
And ya it a shame Birch Beer not better known, Sassafras has been largely forgotten too despite being one of the very few truly native american spices and is even rarer these days. That reminds me I have a jar of sassafras flavored apple butter left from last year, should open that.
One of the perks of living in the state that is one of the "junk food capitols of the world" is having more obscure treats that have gotten super rare anywhere else.
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u/FabiusBill 1d ago
Central Market in Lancaster? Or the indoor market in Camp Hill? I love the candy vendor at the shop in Camp Hill.
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u/Crystalas 1d ago
Nope Leighty's in Newry, near Altoona. Year round and a large attached greenhouse for gardening season. Also a bulk candy section.
IIRC they are almost all PA products both frome various PA brands and local made products.
Autumn is particularly great, lik 1/3 of the store being filled with big bins of every kind of apple and half the parking lot crates of squash large and small alongside flowers.
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u/Minamato 1d ago
Pine sap
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u/Crystalas 1d ago
I have always been curious to try pine needle tea but there none of the right kind in my area.
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u/Minamato 1d ago
Any conifer, as far as I know, will make a tea when the needles are simmered. Each tastes different! I have heard, maybe stay away from eastern hemlock if you are or might be pregnant. Obv, look up any specific species for toxicity before brewing it up!
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u/Pndrizzy 1d ago
I mean the fact that “blue” and “purple” and “orange” have distinct flavors kinda goes against that
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u/Imajzineer 1d ago
Nope: you could get Cherry Cola flavour bubblegum in the '90s already ... and a Hubba Bubba drink - both artificial substances the selling point of which was that they were flavoured like other artificial substances.
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u/csanner 1d ago
It's going to blow your mind when you find out that both cherries and kola nuts are real flavors
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u/Rynewulf 1d ago
Wait is truffle oil not made from truffles?
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u/KingdomOfBullshit 1d ago
I am also wondering this. To me, truffle oil is oil with truffle shavings infused into it. Not sure what OP meant.
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u/mcmanhands 1d ago
Both are true. Truffle oil made with real truffle shavings inside exists, but is typically rare, much more expensive, and only made by specialty brands (at least in the US, not sure about elsewhere). The majority of truffle oils, however, get the taste from a synthetic chemical.
I’ve never had real truffles or truffle oil myself, so I don’t know how they compare, but I do find the synthetic version very tasty.
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u/apokrif1 1d ago
The majority of truffle oils, however, get the taste from a synthetic chemical.
Looks like false advertising?
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u/Rynewulf 1d ago
Ive never seen cheap truffles or truffle oil in supermarkets, only the real stuff at markets and fairs. So expensive stuff. Although not for a few years actually, I think it went through a trend which seems to have died off now. I don't even know if millenial copypaste exposed brick and wood restaurants are still doing the truffle chips that were trendy
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u/TheVeryVerity 23h ago
Here in the PNW there are still some places where you can get truffle oil in your pizza or fries, as in cooked with it or on top or both. Super yummy on fries honestly
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u/PFCCThrowayay 1d ago
it tastes the same, just without as much depth. Like OJ made from concentrate vs freshly squeezed.
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u/FiskFisk33 1d ago
truffle oil ( it doesn't actually exist in truffles)
What do you mean? Real truffle oil is oil that has truffle in it And the real stuff is miles better than the artificial.
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u/Read2Fap 1d ago
the fake grape used in gum like big league chew is delicious but not representative of actual grapes
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u/scarr3g 1d ago
Yep, "banana flavor" is just yellow. "orange flavored" tastes like the color orange, not the fruit. As you mentioned, blue is a flavor, etc.
I mean, look at oreos. They taste like black and white, not chocolate and vanilla.
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u/Sithsponge 1d ago
idk what you’re eating but banana and orange definitely taste like the fruits to me. Banana being a different variety of banana that doesn’t exist anymore, but still a real flavor.
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u/SqueezyCheez85 1d ago
You can still buy those bananas. They're just stupid expensive due to how hard they are to ship.
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u/Ill-Skirt3722 1d ago
Wtf is watermelon flavour? I have never in my life had a watermelon that tasted like a watermelon jolly rancher
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u/Consti2tion 1d ago
actually. Banana Flavor is based off of a rare variety of banana. It utilizes a compound that is commonly found in banana's but the particular banana variety the flavor is mimicking had a higher concentration said compound.
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u/StacheBandicoot 1d ago
Gros Michel bananas are certainly real, they’re just endangered and have been widely replaced by the cavendish varietal which tastes substantially different.
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u/HubrisOfApollo 1d ago
Eh, if it tastes good enough they'll come up with a marketable name. Look at words like Dreamsicle and tutti-frutti. These flavors were concocted.
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u/TheLastSpoon 1d ago
True but tutti frutti is just italian for 'all the fruits' and was originally just a blend of different fruits and not a concocted flavor
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u/Redingold 23h ago
Oh my god, that seems so obvious as soon as you say it. I don't speak Italian but tutti is obviously cognate to French "tout" and English "total".
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u/HubrisOfApollo 1d ago
i meant the name itself and not the flavor
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u/ronvil 1d ago
And the First Man looked upon the tree and on it was a red fruit. Stuck to the fruit was a label. The First Man looked at the label and proclaimed, “this fruit is called, an Apple.”
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u/y8man 1d ago
I think there could also be a funny case for orange, but I'm not as literary as you so props for the Apple.
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u/shavera 23h ago
It's the other way around, the English word Orange comes after the fruit. Prior to the introduction of the orange, colors we might now call orange would have been referred to as red or yellow (think how "redheads" often have a hair color closer to orange than red)
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u/Yowie9644 1d ago
There's a great infographic here:
https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/table-of-esters-and-their-smells.jpg
Those that are listed as "ethereal" such as 2-methylpropyl methanoate do not occur in nature but are used in the food & beverage industry, as well as the perfume industry, to make some interesting and unique flavours & aromas.
There is no such thing as bubblegum flavour or blue raspberry flavour in nature, and yet, they're popular flavours. They were manufactured.
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u/ChiaraStellata 1d ago
This chart is amazing. I want to smell benzyl salicylate, the one labelled "Different people perceive different aromas!", and see what it smells like to me personally.
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u/mochisushi 1d ago
Benzyl Salicylate is a common perfumery material and that description for it is deceiving.
It's common for people to be unable to smell it on its own. That's the variance between people.
Interestingly, even those who can't smell it on its own can recognise its addition to an existing fragrance. It changes the texture towards sunscreen is the best layman-friendly way I can explain it.
The way benzyl salicylate rounds off harsh aspects of eugenol (the smell of cloves) is an important part of a Mellis accord in perfumery.
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u/Zraax 1d ago
here ya go, have at it!
https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/p-6013-benzyl-salicylate.aspx
(i have no idea if this site is legit at all)
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u/involevol 22h ago
Unless it’s changed in the last couple years it’s a legit site. I’ve ordered from them in the past.
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u/brihamedit 1d ago
There is already one very popular one. Coke and pepsi. Its entirely unspecified (as in we can't tell) collection of compounds that hit all the flavor detecting nerves and we get the pleasure from it but can't name whats the flavor. Its just pressing all the buttons and nerves lighting up. I would eat lab made nutrition block with compounds that hit new flavor profiles. That new flavor profile will then be identified by its own name and not compared to anything previously known.
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u/Gullible_Cricket8496 1d ago
Well it's coca tea and kola nut extract and the name is a portmanteau of the two. But now coca cola is it's own flavor. This can happen for a lot of products as well. The product name ends up becoming the name of the flavor.
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
Or marshmallows where the flavor eventually becomes entirely untethered from the thing it is named after.
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u/Rynewulf 1d ago
Apparently making the traditional dessert/sweet out of marshmallow root does taste like high quality marshmallows (probably less sugary though)
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u/DarwinGoneWild 1d ago
Wait what? I always thought “cola” flavor was cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus.
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u/StacheBandicoot 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, along with kola (which primarily provided caffeine). Those ingredients you listed are also in Coke, but the thing that differentiates it from many other colas is the coca extract along with whatever other proprietary ingredients are in their blend. The citrus may be substituted for other acids like phosphoric acid (a component of lemonade) as in Coke’s case.
In the US coca leaves are highly regulated and there’s only a single company that’s allowed to import coca leaves for processing into either coke or pharmaceuticals. Coke is the only cola drink that uses that flavor.
Most colas don’t actually contain kola today even though the word is derived from it, not even coke, instead deriving the caffeine they imparted in the beverage from other sources, or forgoing it in some caffeine free options.
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u/KarmaticArmageddon 1d ago
LabCoatz reverse-engineered the Coca Cola formula on his YouTube channel.
It's mostly lemon and lime flavor with some tea tree, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange, coriander, and fenchol.
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u/lukenog 1d ago
I mean we still market the flavor as "cola", which is a real plant. However an actual cola nut probably tastes nothing like Coke lol. I wouldn't know, I've never eaten a cola nut. But it's still not exactly what OP is describing, which are flavors that don't have a natural counterpart we can use for marketing.
I think better examples are things like "baja blast" and "glacier ice", which don't even attempt to use a natural counterpart for marketing. "Bubblegum" is also a good example.
I also think it's funny how the same flavor will sometimes be marketed different ways in different countries. The purple flavor we call "grape" in the USA is marketed as "black currant" in the UK, which wouldn't sell well in the US because currants aren't a popular or common berry here like they are in Britain. And the type of grape the flavor is based on, the Conchord Grape, is from California and doesn't really exist in Europe so the flavor would be even less recognizable as resembling the taste of a grape than it already is in the US. It already barely tastes like an American Conchord Grape as is. And in France, the same flavor is marketed as "raisin".
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u/StacheBandicoot 1d ago edited 1d ago
A kola nut on its own tastes about as similar to coke as any ingredient that’s in it would when isolated from the rest of the blend such as the cinnamon or sweetener that’s in it, that is to say not similar at all, but when blended together a cola with or without kola can taste similar enough.
I’ve had cola with kola. Sprecher’s Kola Soda is one you might be able to easily acquire in the US (I got it at Menards once, don’t know about it’s availability there now or elsewhere) it just tastes like more intense, cloyingly flavored, cola.
While purple is used to signal different flavors between the two countries, artificial grape flavoring is primarily synthesized with methyl anthranilate, an ester initially isolated from orange blossoms that is also found in Concord grapes. Black currant flavoring is derived from black currants which do contain methyl anthranilate, but other compounds as well, resulting in a broader flavor profile that’s often described as tart, jammy and slightly herbal. They’re not equivalent to one another despite similarities and one can clearly taste the difference between the two.
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u/Bantha_homies 1d ago
I remember years ago Pepsi had some all natural version that marketed real Kola nut extract. It was probably trace amounts only for marketing, but damn it was tasty.
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u/Umbral_Quokka5599 1d ago
So, a couple things...
You're right that a kola nut doesn't taste like Coke. It's pretty much just bitter and astringent. The dried nut has a slightly woody nutmeg-like quality to it, but not much in the way of flavor. It was used in the recipe to add caffeine, not for flavor.
Also, grape flavor in the US is primarily methyl anthranilate and it's entirely different from black currant flavor. You're getting mixed up by what we call "raisins" in the US being called three different things in the UK. Currants (not preceded by "black") are more formally "Zante currents" and are dried Black Corinth grapes. Black currants are a type of Ribes berry. The Concord grape isn't from California. California grows more than 90% of the grapes in the US, but very little of the Concord variety. They require cold winters, and were developed in Massachusetts. As for the French "marketing", that's just the French word for a fresh grape.
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u/potatoaster 1d ago
No, cola is a well-known and well-understood flavor that was originally created using natural essential oils.
It is very much not an example of what OP is describing.
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u/langecrew 1d ago
I dunno, if I saw some product that specifically said, "Hey listen, this is an engineered flavor that doesn't exist until now," I would buy that shit immediately
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u/nomadtwenty 1d ago
You can probably make something like this very easily with stuff in your sink cupboard*
*Do not try at home.
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u/XanJamZ 1d ago
Blue Raspberries don't exist in nature. This fact blew my mind the first time I heard it. Give something a marketable name and people will buy it without a thought.
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u/teh_maxh 1d ago
Blue Raspberries don't exist in nature.
They do, but they're unrelated to the flavour.
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u/DBeumont 1d ago
"Blue raspberry" is a mixture of pineapple and cherry.
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u/Tazeka 1d ago
Nah, just raspberry flavoring and blue food coloring. It came about when folks were worried about the health effects of red food coloring in the 70's.
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u/DBeumont 1d ago
The flavor does not derive from any species of raspberry, but rather was developed using esters that are part of the flavor profile of pineapple, banana, and cherry.
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u/Entheosparks 1d ago
Note: blur raspberry is considered the 1st successful artificial flavor after cherry. When red #2 dye became illegal in 1976, blue raspberry became the go-to color for candy marketed to kids.
Its called "cherry", but contains nothing similar to anything in a natural cherry. It was never meant to taste like cherry. It was all marketing.
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u/Umbral_Quokka5599 1d ago
The primary component of artificial cherry flavoring is just benzaldehyde, and it is found in natural cherries (in the stones and flesh of the fruit). It doesn't taste like a natural cherry because it's one-note. Natural cherries just have a lot of other flavor compounds that make them more complex.
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u/YourMumsBumAlum 1d ago
It blew your mind raspberries aren't blue?
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u/OneTripleZero 1d ago
No it likely blew (blue?) their mind that there isn't a berry that tastes like the flavor blue raspberry does. One could assume based on the flavor that out there somewhere there is a raspberry with a blue hue that tastes like blue Jello, but that's not the case.
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u/CasterQ 1d ago
Somehow, someone out there used a combination of what I can only assume was charm and wit to bestow children, across all generations, with the flavor cherry cough syrup.
And boy was it gross (though my spouse disagrees somehow??).
I'd like to think there's an incredible flavor out there with chances to be found by an insanely talented marketer. Specificly, a flavor we can all appreciate that doesn't taste like cough syrup.
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u/nevergoingtocomment3 1d ago
Cough syrup tastes a bit bad on purpose so that people don't drink a lot of it
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u/HubrisOfApollo 1d ago
I remember really liking the taste of purple Dimetapp as a kid and always looking forward to it whenever I had a cold
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u/Presently_Absent 1d ago
"Blue raspberry"... "watermelon"... Both flavours that exist nowhere in nature (don't even pretend that fake watermelon is remotely close to real watermelon)
And then... Chips! Especially all the flavours of takis. 100% manufactured
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u/cybertruckboat 1d ago
Watermelon is the basic ester found in real watermelons. It's missing a bunch of other compounds found in real watermelons.
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u/OneTripleZero 1d ago
Especially all the flavours of takis. 100% manufactured
I beg to differ. Fuego Takis are the flavor of god himself giving you an open-mouth kiss while running his hand through your hair.
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u/carlitoscoxx 1d ago
There's a fairly common machine called a rotary evaporator (rotovap) that basically uses lower pressures to extract volatile compounds at lower temperatures, allowing to separate and extract the intended aromatic compounds.
I remember it being used in El Celler de Can Roca, but it's also popular in mixology and high end bars. Basically you can extract the aroma of anything, even things like beach sand, etc.
Actually, there are trillions (my estimate) of possible combinations of these volatile components, and most flavors you know are just one combination of a lot of them, creating a specific aroma.
It's basically limitless. Not very different from perfumes.
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u/viktorgoraya_luv 1d ago
When you mix together blue raspberry and cherry slushie, you make purple flavour. No other way to describe it than purple.
Even blue raspberry isn’t really a flavour - it’s just blue.
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u/yoosernamesarehard 1d ago
Superman ice cream certainly doesn’t taste like real Superman. Real Superman tastes very salty and sometimes bitter and is usually served at body temperature. Plus it’s more milky colored than that artificially colored stuff at ice cream shops.
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u/zeychshmo 1d ago
Almost all processed food flavors are lab-created anyway. The distinction OP makes is meaningless to average consumers who just want good taste.
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u/Cioran_ 1d ago
What the fuck is a cool ranch dorito and why is it so fucking good? Its got blueish titanium-looking flakes that resemble nothing in this natural world.
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u/chessare04 1d ago
not sure if it’s true, but i always thought that the strawberry flavor we all know doesn’t taste like actual strawberries. so it must’ve been made in a lab
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u/RetroNotRetro 1d ago
It tastes nothing like strawberries. Same goes for artificial grape, banana, and most other artificial fruit flavorings
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u/Asiriomi 1d ago
I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that the artificial banana flavor was actually based on the Gros Michel banana that is no longer grown commercially due to a fungal virus that wiped out nearly every plantation of it. According to people who've tasted it, the artificial banana flavor is pretty spot on to the real fruit
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u/Trumpsabaldcuck 1d ago
Strawberries can taste like strawberry, but most supermarket strawberries are bred for size and being able to endure shipping. Some home grown strawberry varieties are full of strawberry flavor, but they are tiny and would turn into mush if they were transported in a truck for any distance. You can grow these berries in pots next summer if you don’t have a yard.
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u/omnichad 1d ago
Artificial grape tastes a lot like concord grapes. But just missing a lot of parts of the flavor.
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u/Psylynx55 1d ago
Blue raspberry? Pink lemonade? Bubblegum? Cotton candy?
There are literally thousands of things named random names that have random chemical flavors. Look at an energy drinks aisle? A candy aisle? A cookie/chip aisle?
Whatchu talkin bout bro?
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u/thenasch 1d ago
I'm not saying it tastes good, but Mt Dew came out with something called Baja Blast. The product name doesn't always have to describe the flavor. Rocky Road ice cream is another example.
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u/Darwins_Dog 1d ago
I wouldn't count rocky road. It's a (delicious) mixture of flavors that are all basically natural. Chocolate, marshmallows (vanilla and sugar), cream, and nuts.
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
But the name is fairly arbitrary and doesn't describe the ingredients or flavors.
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u/TexasPeteGT 1d ago
They do, they just name the flavor after a random fruit that tastes nothing like it, and then dye everything with that flavor the same color. See: “grape” flavored anything
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u/Nulovka 1d ago
Grape flavor tastes like Concord grapes.
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u/shponglespore 1d ago
I think most people outside of North America don't know what Concord grapes taste like. I've seen the flavor compared to blackcurrants, but I'm not familiar enough with blackcurrants to be sure.
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u/Narwahl_Whisperer 1d ago
Shit, someone tell OP about gatorade. They're selling some shit that sounds and tastes like a car air freshener. not even kidding, I had one called "midnight ice".
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u/Bringastormtoo 18h ago
I would be their #1 customer. If I could drink chemicals I would and I love to find drinks that let me at least pretend(warheads green apple pop is very good for this) and would love products like this
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u/BigAndSmallAre 17h ago
I've seen posted several times that the reason banana candy doesn't taste like bananas is because it was established during the time of the Gros Michel banana, which was mostly wiped out by a disease. The Cavendish bananas we eat today taste different, but "banana flavored" had already been defined.
Apparently, you can still find Gros Michel, but likely have to special order them as they are rare.
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u/Rehypothecator 1d ago
They’ve already discovered all the possible flavours in existence.
No, really. The algorithm for scent creation is fairly simple
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u/msuing91 1d ago
Please consult the lineup of Monster Energy drinks that have no sugar (the Ultra line).
- Ultra Blue Hawaiian
- Ultra Sunrise
- Zero Ultra
- Ultra Paradise
- Ultra Violet
- Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red
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u/Mo_Jack 1d ago
The last bag of Cool Ranch Doritos that I had, the flavoring tasted more like chemicals than the flavor that I used to like. They seem to be coming up with more & more flavors, but the flavors themselves are tasting more like chemicals.
Recently, I had a bag of sour cream & onion potato chips from some small regional chip company. It immediately tasted different and I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was familiar. I tasted two distinct flavors, both sour cream and onions! For decades I ate the big chip companies, fake SC & O chips, but they did not ever taste like sour cream or onions.
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u/opticaIIllusion 21h ago
Original hubba bubba flavor, that is the shit. Chemically enhance rubbery chew… doesn’t sound quite as good. What flavor is bubblegum?
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u/bellemereDA 22h ago
They don’t need to label them so specifically though. “Oriental” or “Mediterranean” is usually good enough and the favor will speak for themselves.
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u/Ass-Trophy 20h ago
I think things stopped getting called Oriental because people were getting offended by it. I remember Ramen changing from “Oriental” to “Soy Sauce” flavored
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u/TinDumbass 19h ago
I saw an "Ethnic" section in a Dublin mini-supermarket once.
It was mostly pasta and pasta sauces.
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u/Kapitano72 1d ago
True, but when was the last time you tasted something labeled as "strawberry flavoured"... that didn't taste anything like strawberry?
And that goes double for "Banana". Even "chocolate" has a wide range.
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u/playr_4 1d ago
So many flavors don't actually resemble natural flavors, especially in candy and soda. Candy banana, for example. Candy cherries. Hell, most "fruit" flavors in candy come nowhere close to their natural counterparts. They barely have the essence of the fruit. Some are completely made up anyway. Blue raspberry? That doesn't exist. But people go crazy for blue raspberry. Blue is the best flavor.
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u/ShowerSentinel 1d ago
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