Exactly what bump said. I was surprised at all the people who answered “cherry” when the OP used gum as an example.
But the OP specifically said bubble gum. In my experience a red Hubba Bubba or Bubblicious is not going to be cinnamon. Chewing gum, yes. Bubble gum, no.
There was a place in Princeton, NJ that was a mom & pop meat & three affair. One of the things about it I found incredibly endearing was that on the dessert menu was the following item:
“Jello (Red)”
I never ordered it, because I’m damned if I’m going to pay for Jello, but I always assumed it was cherry.
Reminded me of the soda fountain in the drug store when I was a kid. This was, oh, 1959 - 1963. They had three flavors of ice cream: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. But the lady behind the counter never knew the flavors. She only knew the colors - white, brown, and pink. You’d ask her for a chocolate ice cream cone, and she’d say “what color?” If you didn’t tell her “brown,” you didn’t your chocolate ice cream.
I never challenged her - I was 8 or 9 years old, so I never knew if she was putting us on!
If it’s a “Jawbreaker”, I’m thinking hot. Otherwise strawberry comes to mind.
Good question. Honestly, I think I expect red foods to be moist, juicy, and cool. I cannot say beyond that. Great question.
There was a link to a PANTONE color block in the original OP. I followed the link #FF0000 and then made my guess based on the color.
I don’t remember if the original OP had any reference to gum. I’ve never seen gum so intensely red as the color block in the link.
Before I looked at the link I was also thinking beets. But the red color from beets has a bit more blue in it.
usually in chewy candy like skittles or starburst pink is strawberry red is cherry or fruit/tropical punch
When Koolaid first made the tropical punch flavor in those awful squeezable bottles they made the tropical punch blue… confused the hell outta everyone so they made it red like the mix …
When I was growing up, all the red artificially-flavoured things were raspberry. Strawberry was pink, and everything else had a unique colour. We didn’t have Cherry at all, and watermelon is usually green, I think. The wide varied flavours available these days are still mind-boggling to me.
There’s no link in the OP any more, but you don’t need a Pantone link for #FF0000. It’s pure absolute red, or the closest thing to it a monitor can display. Like what you get when you set the font color to “red”.
[sub](and this post has been cherried by the cherist)[/sub]
Pomegranate
Red food =cherry or strawberry
Blue= raspberry (Slurpies apparently had a profound effect on my senses as a child. Blue Raspberry was my the only one I would ever consume)
This.
If it’s gum, I would expect watermelon. The two most common flavors of Bubbalicious gum where I grew up were watermelon and grape, and I thought the grape was too sour, so I was constantly buying watermelon.
If it’s a candy, I would expect to taste bitterness over any artificial flavoring, although I would be hoping for cherry. (I’m still irritated that Runts no longer contains a cherry-flavored candy.)
That red is hot cinnamon.
For sweet stuff like candy, I’d expect cherry or strawberry. Lately watermelon has become more common. I was always disappointed when a red confection ended up being red “raspberry,” since the only real raspberries IMHO are black.
Someone earlier decried red frosting or icing. Red dye #40 tastes quite bitter and ruins the taste of many treats such as red velvet cake. I can’t taste it as much as I used to, but it really made red M&Ms nasty when I was a kid.
The real tragedy is that the traditional flavor for green candies- LIME- has nearly disappeared, replaced with bad versions of green apple (I’m looking at you, Skittles) or watermelon (gag).
In savory foods, red prompts me to think it’s hot or spicy.
Which reminds me of the department holiday parties in my prior job where, every year, we looked forward to the tamales one of the secretaries brought. And every year, the newbies had to be warned that, contrary to expectation, the red tamales were mild and the pale ones were SPICY.
Red is a flavor:
I’ve heard there’s something called “red pop.” Something regional, I’ve never tried it. What flavor is it, actually? The answer to that question is what flavor is the color red.
There are two “red” types of food that I usually eat: the ones that are covered in paprika, or my daily red cabbage salad. I know they’re different types of red, but still.
Occasionally I may eat strawberry/raspberry/cherry ice cream or cake. That would be red as well.
Red would be predominantly sweet. Anything that is marketed to kids will be sweet. There may be a hint of a fruity type flavor, and the taster’s interpretation will be the red fruit of preference.
Unless it is watermelon. Then all you taste is grass clippings. But watermelon candy/gum is typically pink, not red.
Remember the sad days when M&Ms had no red candies? Oh, the horrors!
~VOW
cherry