For everyone who has read the Harry Potter books, you are aware of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean. You might also know that you can buy these, thanks to the folks at Jelly Belly. Aside from all of the good flavors, they also come in Vomit, Grass, Dirt, Booger & Earwax. I’m sure it’s a trade secret on how they really managed a vomit flavored jelly bean, but I’d have loved to be at the meeting where taste testing of puke flavored jelly beans took place.
Well, in the name of science or maybe the fact that I know what all of these really taste like, I tried them all. (I don’t think I’ve tried Earwax… but I could tell you if it was right on or not.) The taste is quite accurate. If I could add sugar to my boogers, then I’d be in business. So, how do they do it? How much of this (or any) “flavor” is based on your sense of smell? Could they make a vomit jelly bean that smells more like vomit than tastes like vomit, using the smell as the illusion of taste? If grass juice or “dirt juice” or sardine juice is used in some sense for this, how do they avoid having this listed on the ingredients?