# Grape Flavour? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678 "2008-09-08T21:30:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/41 "2008-09-09T15:52:35Z")
> [@mazinger\_z](#): > > My Australian cousins think I’m insane to put peanut butter and grape jelly together. They also prefer vegemite. Who is insane now? Are you sure they realize you’re talking about “jelly” in the jam/preserves/etc way and not in the “Jell-O” way which is what “jelly” means in a lot of the world? Aside to you grape-flavor loving people: you’re sick in the head and should seek help immediately. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/42 "2008-09-09T15:52:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Without the skins, concord grapes are exactly like squishy little grape flavored candies. It was amazing how spot on the artificial flavor is under those conditions, actually. Your experience – or your taste buds – are clearly different from mine. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/43 "2008-09-11T05:08:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As regards Tootsie Rolls, by the way, they DO contain Cocoa Powder, so saying they don’t contain chocolate isn’t really correct. Check out the ingredients: > > [http://www.nutsonline.com/chocolatessweets/old-time-candies/tootsie-roll-minis.html](http://www.nutsonline.com/chocolatessweets/old-time-candies/tootsie-roll-minis.html) Yea, exactly what I mean. You get to see the naked lady, but you don’t get no pussy. If you’re lucky you might feel her skin brush against you. That’s illegal now,where I come from, b.t.w. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/44 "2008-09-11T05:25:28Z")
You see, the law was pretty standard and within decency. A real [lap dance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_dance)… no finish. But there was contact and it was legal. The right wing christians made a law against it and are trying to seperate people from one another as they are seperate from humanity. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/45 "2008-09-11T06:14:34Z")
My neighbor Roscoe had a Garden Vineyard. Long established vines. He made somewhere between a preserve and a jelly with the tiny sour concords. It was grapes and skin with sugar and pectin, seeded by crushing and straining. It sometimes included the peel. It was very good on buttered wonderbread. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/46 "2008-09-11T06:43:36Z")
But here’s the deal. His concord jelly was neither purple nor black, it ranged from a green pink to red. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/47 "2008-09-11T13:39:25Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Ahh, yes…“Blue Raspberry Tootsie Pops” are also an entirely unnatural and very popular flavor in the US. That’s a lolli with rasberry rock, deep blue color, with a cocoa taffy (carmael) center (Just as there is no sex in the Champagne Room, there is no chocolate in Tootsie Rolls) No, I’m speaking of the raspberry ones which are red like the cherry ones. The new blue ones are the blue raspberry ones. [http://www.tootsie.com/products.php?pid=168](http://www.tootsie.com/products.php?pid=168) The new three flavors are all terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/48 "2008-09-11T13:42:49Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > I had a very similar taste experience last summer. We were picking my friend’s concords and probably eating about a quarter of what we picked until we got too sick of them. After a while, the intensity of the skins got to be too much for me, so I tried peeling them. > > Bingo: Grape flavor. > > Without the skins, concord grapes are exactly like squishy little grape flavored candies. It was amazing how spot on the artificial flavor is under those conditions, actually. > > Sadly, that friend is an idiot and took the advice of pruning his grape vines to revitalize them a little too far. He chopped off about two thirds from each of his vines and then complained about how he didn’t get any grapes this year. :rolleyes: Grapes always flower on the last year’s growth. Just remember that when pruning. I wasn’t how much he pruned, it was what he pruned. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/49 "2008-09-11T13:50:01Z")
I grew up with a wild (possibly feral from an earlier cultivation) concord vine in my backyard. When the grapes are ripe and bursting, popping one in the mouth whole and spitting out the seeds tasted like grape jelly. Popping the grape out of the skin and just eating the flesh tasted like grape soda. My guess is that’s what they were going for with the artificial grape flavor. I’ve had black current jelly (gummy) candies and thought they were like a cross between grape and cherry, only more bitter. Which is kind of odd as I thought most European candies were supposed to be sweeter and most artificial grape flavor is insanley sweet (mmm… concord jam and butter on a toasted english muffin). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/50 "2008-09-11T14:39:37Z")
Black current always tasted like something between cough drops and a bowel lubricant to me. That’s not what I look for in a candy, but if reading “Gravity’s Rainbow” taught me anything, it’s something the Brits DO look for. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/51 "2008-09-11T14:52:29Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Grapes always flower on the last year’s growth. Just remember that when pruning. I wasn’t how much he pruned, it was what he pruned. In this case, “what” he pruned was the sad victim of “how much”, because he did it blindly. If he cut back some of the older growth and left renewal buds, he would have still had some year old limbs for flowering and the plants would have recovered more quickly. The problem was that he hacked off everything on the outside of the plants with no regard for anything, so that about two thirds of them ended up in the trash and pretty much the only things left were little grape “shrubs” of old growth around the main trunks. It was about as far from what you’re supposed to do as you can get without burning them to the ground and salting their roots. ---
**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/52 "2008-09-11T19:13:06Z")
I got lucky then. I’ve got about 16’ of split rail fence covered in long neglected grapvines. I pruned them in early spring, mostly attempting to take off dead growth. It made my neighbors nervous. I picked 50lbs of grapes off them last month. I’ve got 24 jars of jelly and another gallon of juice in the freezer. The jelly is fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![A\_shameful\_cracka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@A\_shameful\_cracka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_shameful_cracka)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/53 "2008-09-11T19:53:04Z")
> [@torie](#): > > No, there are not a lot of blackcurrant anythings in America. The thing that surprised me the first time I went overseas as a kid was that purple wasn’t grape. That’s the default here. Red=Cherry, Green=Apple, and Purple=Grape. When I was a kid, green was almost invariably “lime”. As an apple-flavor hater, I really dislike this change. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/54 "2008-09-11T19:59:36Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s the default here. Red=Cherry, Green=Apple, and Purple=Grape. Green isn’t invariably Sour Apple. Green LifeSavers (in the five flavor pack) and grenn Jello are lime. So are green Tavener’s Fruit Drops, and lots of other candies. So, even if Jolly Rancher and others have been seduced by the pucker of Sour Apple, it’s not universal in America. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/55 "2008-09-11T20:23:51Z")
When I was growing up: Purple was always grape, and was tied with Red as my own first choice among the Usual Flavors. (I had never even heard of black currants as a kid. Why do you think there’s no [Blackcurrant Ape](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_Ape)?) Green was usually lime. Peanut butter and grape jelly was the Standard American Kid Sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![4everkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/76d3ee/32.png) [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/56 "2008-09-12T02:36:47Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > I can find some Black current candy sometimes, but I live in Los Angeles and they are generally black or VERY dark purple (almost black). > > Grape flavord stuff doesn’t taste like grapes though. I never knew why. Also, it seems to me that green=lime more than apple. Although sometimes it is inexplicably watermelon flavored. I don’t understand the grape replacement flavor either. But whatever that flavor is, blindfolded, we would still recognize it as pseudo “grape.” At least it’s consistent. I agree with the green = lime consensus. Although, I once bought a box of Starburst fruit flavored candy canes, the first year they were produced. On the box it stated that it contained the flavors strawberry, orange, lemon and “green.” The following Christmas, they replaced the green flavor with lime. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/57 "2008-09-12T02:45:14Z")
There’s no consistent ‘green’ flavour… It can be lime, or apple, sometimes watermelon…occasionally, even mint in surprising contexts…getting a mint jellybean when expecting lime can be a nasty surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/58 "2008-09-12T14:19:46Z")
I love grapes but I loathe “Grape” flavour. ---
**Author:** ![Kylede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kylede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kylede)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/59 "2008-09-12T17:04:45Z")
The main reason that blackcurrants aren’t popular in the U.S. is due to the fact that they couldn’t be grow here in up until about 3-4 years ago. There is a plant disease endemic to them that is almost alwsy fatal to the American White Elm. DUe to this fact the USDA (Dpet. of Agriculture) had a ban on their cultivation here in the US. The ban was recently lifted and now a number of quality win producers have been growing them with the intent to make a traditional European Cassis (blackcurrant liquor). ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678/60 "2008-09-12T17:07:29Z")
> [@torie](#): > > No, there are not a lot of blackcurrant anythings in America. The thing that surprised me the first time I went overseas as a kid was that purple wasn’t grape. That’s the default here. Red=Cherry, Green=Apple, and Purple=Grape. You’re overlooking the all-important “strawberry.” It’s color/flavor confusion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grape-flavour/462678.md?page=4)