How come the watermelon flavoring they use in candy and gum and the like doesn’t really taste like watermelon? Same with grape and banana flavoring and most other fruit flavors. And cinammon too – cinammon gum doesn’t taste at all like the actual cinammon powder that people put on my toast (when it’s mixed with sugar, of course).
So what’s the deal with that? How do people determine that this particular artificial flavor of gum/candy/whatever is “watermelon” and this other flavor is “banana” or “grape” or “cinammon” or whatever? Is there some actual correspondence between these artificial flavors and their namesakes that has eluded me? Are the artificial flavors just simplified versions of their natural counterparts? Do they trigger the same basic neural circuits as the natural flavorings?
Or have we basically just been trained to think of watermelon flavoring as watermelon, banana flavoring as banana, cinammon flavoring as cinammon, etc.? If we took out the artificial coloring so as to avoid color clues and gave a variety of gum to somebody who’d never tasted these flavors before, would they be able to tell what flavor watermelon, grape, cherry, cinammon, banana, etc. gum was supposed to be? Or would it just taste sweet and vaguely fruity?
I tried searching the archives for this question, and found a semi-relevant discussion about what exactly “bubble gum” flavor is, but that was about it. If there’s already a thread about this, I’d appreciate a URL to it. Thanks.
Dried strawberries do in fact, taste similar to the standard “strawberry” flavor. I have also had some very ripe bananas that tasted like banana flavor. Grape isn’t terribly far off from grape juice either. All this means is that some of the flavors are not completely made up.
I agree that the watermelon flavor is a stretch but I don’t know who originated it.
The only thing that I have that is “watermelon-y” is my watermelon be-odored liquid hand soap, which, for the record and for the sake of science, I tasted. It tastes nothing like watermelon at all!
It also depends on what variety you’re comparing too. I don’t like grape flavored anything (including grapes). But next time your at the store and see Concord grapes, smell them, they’re basically the flavoring that most grape flavored things are based on. It’s a much stronger and more distinct scent then other grapes.
Exactly! I never thought banana-flavoured sweets (candy) tasted of banana, until a while back I had let some bananas go really ripe (skins almost black). I tried one of those, and hey presto - essence of banana flavour!
The chemicals responsible for “fruit” flavours are mainly esters - relatively simple organic compounds. The banana one is called isoamyl acetate. Natural fruit contains lots of these flavour compounds, some only in trace amounts, and it is the combined effect that gives us the subtle nuance of flavour. Artificial flavours tend to use only a few of them, maybe only one or two in some cases, for reasons of cost, so your flavour may vary…
Once I was sitting in the back seat of a car riding down a highway lit by dim yellow lights. My cousin and I were sharing a bag of assorted Jelly Belly beans. With the odd colour of the light, we couldn’t tell what colour the beans were, and our perception of the flavour was off. Apparently the flavours aren’t convincing enough to be recognisable without the added sensory help of the colour.
I’d like to hear from a blind Jelly Belly fan-- how many of the flavours do you think actually taste like what they claim to be?