Speak for yourself . Decaf coffee is bland and flat tasting compared to regular.
Of course that’s not a case where it is explicitly added for flavour, but it’s presence is an important component of flavour.
This could just mean that the decaffeination process alters the flavor of coffee. Coffee is decaffeinated by soaking it in hot water or some other solvent. It would be interesting to see if adding pure caffeine to decaf coffee makes it taste like regular coffee - I doubt it.
Good point. Perhaps, however, the key thing that decaf lacks is bitterness.
When you “drug” are you considering only psychoactive drugs? (As examples in this thread. To which I add poppy seeds, which occasionally results in a tripping Hasid at the hospital.) Because the overlap “therapeutic drug” and “component of diet” ranges from ubiquitous (at the “eat-greens-and-get-more x, y, and z” to a unity, by definition, in an entire civilization.
What about root beer? I’ve heard people say they can taste the bitterness the caffeine gives to Barq’s Root Beer, and that that’s what their “Barq’s has bite” slogan refers to. I had assumed it was talking about the stimulant effect of the caffeine, myself…
Again, I’m pointing out these things aren’t added for their flavor. Dr. Strangeloves’s could be further proof of that, though I think it just proves peoples ability to distinguish flavors isn’t as good as they think. In blind taste tests people are very bad at identifying many flavors.
I don’t now how well they work, but many people use peppermint leaves or peppermint oil for medicinal purposes.
Some use basil as treatment for stomach pain.
Thyme is touted as a natural antiseptic in some circles, and some New Agers say sage is a great treatment for mouth and throat inflammation.
I offer no opinion as to whether those claims are true.
Soft drink makers do indeed add caffeine for flavor, or at least they claim to.
I found an interesting study that showed that the flavor isn’t detectable by many people, implying that it is really added simply for the stimulant effect, which is no surprise to anyone.
Licorice is used in cough and stomach medicines (and not just as a flavouring in the medicines)
Isn’t ascorbic acid (vitamin C) sometimes added for flavor? Though I’m not sure if you can call that a drug…
Chocolate contains a psychoactive …
There was the old myth about fermenting banana…
Some people like the taste of cannabis products…
Poppy seeds are used for taste on buns and can deliver detectable levels of opiate… like you used opium 100 days ago.
I can tell the difference between caffeinated and non-caffeinated sodas.
It’s a triaditional flavouring in Vietnam, the same way that parsly and sage are in some western dishes.
Coca and Cola are both drugs, and I think both banned now (or at least controlled) in the USA, with substitutes used for the flavorings of Coca Cola…
Well, Coca Cola syrup was sold as a tonic originally, too. Some doctors still prescribe it for stomach pain, or did in the eighties. Not sure if it works for stomach pain, and ‘tonic’ is general enough that I’m not sure it counts.
Although caffeine has analgesic properties. Were the bitters meant to be taken with alcohol? Do they have any caffeine?
Good one. The original recipe for Coca Cola included coca leaves, which introduced trace amounts of cocaine. That was removed in 1903. The kola nut supplied caffeine. That counts.
The recipe(s) for Coke are secret, but the wiki entry for cola says that most colas use other caffeinating ingredients now. So we don’t know how it gets in today, but it counts.
It’s a matter of taste, not psychosis. I’ve always liked tonic & lime, even as a kid. Years later, I found out what it tastes like with gin in it. These days, I don’t do the gin, but I’ll still have a tonic & lime every few days.
Justin Warner, author of The Laws of Cooking said this on Splendid Table: