The flavor of life

Where would we be without artificial flavorings? Well, a large percentage of items we find in grocery stores wouldn't be there, that's for sure. Ice cream, sodas, cookies, frozen dinners - all use artificial flavorings in one form or another.

Many ingredients can be expensive, hard to find, or seasonal - maybe even all three. Ever try to buy blueberries in the winter months? So, it makes sense to have those cheap artificial flavorings around to add to the product. To make those flavorings, there are special chemists out there called flavorists. Not only can they make those artificial flavors, they can tailor them to fit with existing products. It's not enough to add cherry flavoring to that can of Coke - it has to have the same shelf life as regular coke, and not mess with the special formula. So, again, artificial flavorings make sense for the most part.

Notice I say "for the most part." Because there are products out there using artificial flavoring that have no business using artificial flavoring, at least in my opinion. Take dried fruits, for example. I'm sure many people have seen or tasted Craisins, the dried cranberry snacks. I guess "plain" Craisins weren't enough, because the company went out and added artificial flavorings to the Craisins, to make Craisins taste like other things. I've seen orange-flavored and cherry-flavored Craisins in stores. Even more bizarre in the dried fruits section were mango-flavored dried pineapple. Huh??

So I'm buying fruit thats been made to taste like other fruit? I might as well make a cherry pie, slap some apple butter on top, and call it an apple-flavored cherry pie. I just find it truly strange. I suppose the only way it makes sense to me is if someone were needing a substitute for something else. But that only works for the cherry-flavored Craisins. Dried cherries can be hard to find, and are probably more expensive than a bag of cherry-flavored Craisins. But what do I need orange-flavored Craisins for? Or mango-flavored pineapple? Because I can't find dried mangos? I guess I could close my eyes and pretend the mango-flavored pineapple is really a dried mango.

But I suppose I'm making a big deal. After all, most fruit juices you can buy are the same way. Chances are the cranberry strawberry drink you're buying isn't really just cranberry and strawberry juice. More than likely they're mixing a bunch of different juices together to make it taste like cranberries and strawberries. And all the other products in a grocery store have artificial something or other. It's just that I don't see them using artificial additives to make something look like something else - until I see a can of orange-flavored spinach. Kids will have fun eating their spinach now!