Artificial Flavoring

Roomie and I were just at a conference where they served a cheesecake with a chocolate crust and cherries jubilee-ish topping after lunch. Roomie mentioned that she wished there were strawberries rather than cherries – that cherries would, in fact, be her last choice. I took interest in this as she categorically chooses cherry flavored candy when the opportunity presents itself. When I inquired as to this shunning of real cherries, she said that she liked cherry-flavored things because they didn’t taste like real cherries. She then offered the following theory:

I think that cherry-flavored things were the beginning of the end. Once they got away with calling something cherry that didn’t actually taste like cherries, they were like, ‘What else can we get away with?’ So, next they tackled watermelon. I’m convinced that the person that they assigned this to had never actually tasted a watermelon. That’s the only way to explain why watermelon-flavored things don’t taste even remotely like the fruit. But once people accepted this, things just went downhill. And that’s how we ended up with Blue Raspberry. I mean Blue Raspberry? That’s not even a thing.

It might have been my deficit of sleep or it could have had something to do with the sugar cube I took for my iced tea (but instead stealthily ate), but I could see the logic in her argument. Some might dispute this, stating that Blue Raspberry flavoring originated with the Rubus leucodermis, but I like Roomie’s theory better. ‘Cause I’d be willing to bet that the Rubus leucodermis doesn’t taste anything like a Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher.

Therefore, I thought I should share this wisdom with you all, as well.

Strangely, artificial flavoring has been coming up in conversation a lot lately. Particularly surrounding Dr. Pepper. (Slight confession, I’m a bit of a DP addict.) Recently, I’ve come into contact with more than one person who refuses to drink the soda due to its flavoring. A coworker said, “There’s just too much going on in there. I just can’t get on board.” Not long after, a classmate stated, “I've never drank Dr. Pepper. There are just too many flavors. Freaks me out.”

My philosophy, on the other hand, is, when the opportunity presents itself, throw some more flavors on in. The other day, I got soda from what I can only describe as a futuristic machine (I’m assuming it’s a step in the direction of flying cars, so….very exciting) at the nearby Noodles & Co. and chose Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.

I would highly recommend it.

Now, you may be asking yourselves, “What is the point of any of this?” To that, I would have to respond that there really isn’t any. But I’m thinking about, so why shouldn’t you?