# Why aren't more things apple-flavored **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517 "2005-11-11T02:46:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/1 "2005-11-11T02:46:59Z")
OK, so I found a thread explaining why ice cream (and other dairy products) aren’t apple-flavored: the apple, or the flavoring, spoils the milk. Here’s my question: Why isn’t anything else apple-flavored? I know you can get apple gelato, and you can get liquor distilled from apples, and if you look online you can find an apple flavoring spray to use on a pound or more of loose tobacco, if you happen to have that much tobacco around waiting to be rolled. Why aren’t there apple cigarettes, apple candy bars, etc.? I personally find the apple delicious, and trade statistics show I’m not the only one. Are there scientific reasons this wouldn’t work? Has it been tried? Did consumers dislike it? Was the secret apple-bar recipe suppressed by the Soviets? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/2 "2005-11-11T03:07:05Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > and if you look online you can find an apple flavoring spray to use on a pound or more of loose tobacco, if you happen to have that much tobacco around waiting to be rolled. I suspect apple-flavored tobacco isn’t intended to be rolled but rather smoked with a narghile. At least, it’s a pretty popular flavor amongst narghile smokers. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/3 "2005-11-11T03:10:43Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I suspect apple-flavored tobacco isn’t intended to be rolled but rather smoked with a narghile. At least, it’s a pretty popular flavor amongst narghile smokers. You’re talking about apple shisha, which is delicious. I’m talking about apple flavoring intended to be sprayed on tobacco which is then intended to be rolled. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/4 "2005-11-11T03:13:19Z")
There are apple Clif Bars, apple Larabars, etc. in wholefood stores. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/5 "2005-11-11T03:14:32Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > OK, so I found a thread explaining why ice cream (and other dairy products) aren’t apple-flavored: the apple, or the flavoring, spoils the milk. > > Here’s my question: Why isn’t anything else apple-flavored? I know you can get apple gelato, and you can get liquor distilled from apples, and if you look online you can find an apple flavoring spray to use on a pound or more of loose tobacco, if you happen to have that much tobacco around waiting to be rolled. > > Why aren’t there apple cigarettes, apple candy bars, etc.? I personally find the apple delicious, and trade statistics show I’m not the only one. > > Are there scientific reasons this wouldn’t work? Has it been tried? Did consumers dislike it? Was the secret apple-bar recipe suppressed by the Soviets? What do you envision by apple candy bars? There is certainly apple flavored candy out there but I don’t see what you are going to flavor apple in terms of a candy bar. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/6 "2005-11-11T03:49:46Z")
The flavor mafia has decreed that everything shall be strawberry, or for variety, strawberry-banana. No room for apple. I used to like strawberries, and bananas. Now I’ve been exposed to so f\*cking many things made to taste like them that I’ve had a lifetime supply of the flavors. Wouldn’t bother me if I never tasted either one again for the rest of my life. It would be a pity for the same thing to happen with the flavor of apple, which I like. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/7 "2005-11-11T04:03:25Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > OK, so I found a thread explaining why ice cream (and other dairy products) aren’t apple-flavored: the apple, or the flavoring, spoils the milk. Can that possibly be true? There are recipes for apple ice cream in my Ben & Jerry’s ice cream recipe book, and it is an apparently sucessful in-store flavor, and at one time, I believe, packaged pint. A local ice cream place where I used to live (Stucchi’s in Ann Arbor MI) had an “dutch apple” ice cream and frozen yogurt that were both to die for (both used apple pie filling and chunks of graham cracker. YUM!). I call shenanigans on that statement. But anyhow – apple is an “official” pancake syrup flavor and I know I’ve seen apple-cinnamon Nutri-grain and other snack/breakfast bars. I’d have to call apple-cinnamon one of the more popular generic flavors, actually. Most candy bars aren’t fruit-flavored anyway – they’re chocolate and nuts. In addition “sour apple” is a popular flavor in all the Sour-type candies like Airheads, and there are those caramel apple lollipops… In short, the OP is smoking it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/8 "2005-11-11T05:28:58Z")
Dubble Bubble makes a tasty apple gum. I bought 2 litres (half a gallon, say) of Quebon apple pie ice cream at Liquidation World. I don’t know why they stopped making it – it was delicious. I’d never seen it in my grocer’s freezer. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/9 "2005-11-11T07:03:13Z")
There are Apple Newtons which are by far better than any other Newton flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/10 "2005-11-11T07:21:05Z")
There used to be Apple Slice soda, which kicked ass. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat if I could find it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/11 "2005-11-11T10:07:29Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > There used to be Apple Slice soda, which kicked ass. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat if I could find it. The reason you can’t is probably because it didn’t sell very well. Does anyone really believe that if the public was desperately jonesing for apple flavoring, it would be more prominent in the marketplace? All the apple-flavored products mentioned above, and their concomitant and continuing obscurity, attests pretty undeniably to their unpopularity. Me, I’d probly pass up such items; I find apples flavoring bland and unsatisfying. Who knows; I may be more of a reflection of the market’s tastes than the OP is. Which would answer his question. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/12 "2005-11-11T14:11:44Z")
How about an [Apple Beer](http://www.leinie.com/apple_spice.htm)? Assuming you are 21+, of course ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/13 "2005-11-11T14:45:39Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > The reason you can’t is probably because it didn’t sell very well. > > Does anyone really believe that if the public was desperately jonesing for apple flavoring, it would be more prominent in the marketplace? All the apple-flavored products mentioned above, and their concomitant and continuing obscurity, attests pretty undeniably to their unpopularity. > > Me, I’d probly pass up such items; I find apples flavoring bland and unsatisfying. Who knows; I may be more of a reflection of the market’s tastes than the OP is. Which would answer his question. Yeah, apple flavoring makes me feel a bit queasy, and I suspect I’m not alone. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/14 "2005-11-11T16:10:56Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Are there scientific reasons this wouldn’t work? Has it been tried? Did consumers dislike it? Was the secret apple-bar recipe suppressed by the Soviets? I don’t think there’s a vast anti-apple conspiracy (after all, we don’t say “As American as strawberry pie”. IANA food chemist but if my understanding is correct, apple is not among the easily synthesized imitation flavors. And synthetically flavorings are almost always cheaper than natural ones. For certain flavors, it is trivially easy to mass-produce reasonably faithful imitation (for example the esters of orange, strawberry, banana, vanilla, and wintergreen). So if consumer preference for all fruits is roughly equal, the market will underrepresent the flavors that are more expensive to synthesize (even if the cost difference is minor). This article talks about the synthesis of apple ester, which seems to be a lot more complex than the more common fruit esters. They mention that it costs 40 times as much to use a natural extract of peach (strangely, no mention of the price for apple) so it’s not a valid comparison, but I bet that the difference isn’t so great for apple. [http://res2.agr.gc.ca/crda/pubs/art3\_e.htm](http://res2.agr.gc.ca/crda/pubs/art3_e.htm) > [@](#): > > Chemical synthesis has proved to be such a satisfactory solution to the difficulties encountered with plants that most of the aromas currently available on the market are synthetic. As long ago as 1989, 84 per cent of all aromas in commercial use were chemical products. The synthesis process is undoubtedly advantageous in some ways, affording as it does complete control and markedly higher yields. As a result, synthetic aromas, as might be expected, are much less costly than their natural counterparts. A natural extract of δ-decalactone (which is a peach aroma note), for example, retails for $8 525 a kilogram, whereas its synthetic equivalent retails for $202. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/15 "2005-11-11T16:28:33Z")
I’ve drunk a Belgian apple beer - i.e. not cider - from the Huyghe brewery called Pomme Foudroyante. Quite pleasant and hardly tasted of apples at all. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/16 "2005-11-11T16:58:49Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > The reason you can’t is probably because it didn’t sell very well. > > Does anyone really believe that if the public was desperately jonesing for apple flavoring, it would be more prominent in the marketplace? All the apple-flavored products mentioned above, and their concomitant and continuing obscurity, attests pretty undeniably to their unpopularity. > > Me, I’d probly pass up such items; I find apples flavoring bland and unsatisfying. Who knows; I may be more of a reflection of the market’s tastes than the OP is. Which would answer his question. Yeah, I think it’s as simple as that. Apple just isn’t a very popular flavor. In fact I saw at my local Target some of the Jones Co. apple flavored soda on a clearance endcap. Which was strange since the other flavors were still selling at regular retail on the main shelves. ---
**Author:** ![ProTem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@ProTem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProTem)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/17 "2005-11-11T18:08:20Z")
We really do need more flavor-crossovers. I had some cinnamon swirl icecream once and it was fabulous. Like a Danish. But it disappeared and I haven’t seen it again. And pumpkin flavor is always seasonal. Why? ---
**Author:** ![ProTem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@ProTem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProTem)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/18 "2005-11-11T18:09:22Z")
Safeway also had a red licorice flavored soda last year, which I loved. Only saw it that once. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/19 "2005-11-11T18:16:54Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > The reason you can’t is probably because it didn’t sell very well. Apple-flavored soda is hugely popular in Mexico. There are at least three regional brands. I never understood why it hasn’t caught on in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517/20 "2005-11-11T18:21:15Z")
[http://www.pipetobacco.com/page/pipet/PROD/pch/MAPP](http://www.pipetobacco.com/page/pipet/PROD/pch/MAPP) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-more-things-apple-flavored/330517.md?page=2)