Little Stinkers Many tasty things actually contain small amounts of chemicals that smell disgusting in larger amounts. The flavor industry uses this knowledge to make simple flavors seem more realistic. Adding just a tiny amount of one of these chemicals can make a dull flavor pop. What do garlic, grilled fish, and freshly brewed coffee all have in common? Sulfur. That’s right the same stuff that makes rotten eggs smell rotten also gives pep to your morning cup of joe. What’s the Recipe? When Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886, it was a totally new flavor. Its particular combination of citrus and spice used familiar flavors but combined them to make something unique. Coca-Cola was so popular that it inspired a host of imitators and a new category of soda: cola. The flavor of Cola-Cola is unmistakable but also mysterious. Coca-Cola’s flavor may seem artificial, but its recipe includes essential oils and extracts. The recipe for Coca-Cola is a closely guarded trade secret.

Before leaving, there's one more experiment to try. Coffee beans & Kola nut have caffeine - a stimulant that makes them popular in beverages.

The complex flavor of coffee includes a surprising hint of sulfur, and colas add citrus & spice to their formulas.

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Artificial flavors continue to evolve, using GC-MS to more precisely assess the chemical profile of foods.

In response to global shortages, in 1982 McCormick created a much more complex imitation vanilla flavor, nearly indistinguishable from the real thing

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What Does the FDA say? Many companies are removing artificial flavors from their products in response to consumer demand for more natural foods. This doesn’t mean added flavors have disappeared. As technology becomes more sophisticated, the flavor industry is making more flavors that can be labeled “natural.” “The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” — Code of Federal Regulations

After salt, water & sugar, “Natural Flavors” are the most common ingredient on food packages in the USA.

But #FDA doesn’t require the specific flavors be listed & allows this term if a chemical that exists in the food is used - no matter how it gets made!

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THE QUEST FOR FLAVOR At Great Human Cost Manipulating the flavor of foods is both a special skill and a basic part of culture. For roughly the past ten thousand years, flavoring food meant adding sugar, salt, spices, and essential oils. The human quest for flavor has often come at great costs. In fact, the search for “exotic” spices during the Middle Ages launched the age of European discovery, colonialism, and enslavement that still affects every aspect of our contemporary world. Spices of Life Medieval Europeans craved spices and used them to make medicines, perfumes, incense, and to flavor their foods. Highly spiced foods graced tables in ostentation displays as luxurious signs of wealth. Most spices arrived in their dried from from Southeast Asia, particularly areas in modern-day Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. Open the grates below to sniff some of the most common culinary spices of Medieval Europe. (via MOFAD)

Another sensory opportunity - aromas now familiar to us, like cinnamon, nutmeg & clove

Desire for spices to enliven cuisine drove Europeans to explore & colonize areas they came from, such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka & India - at great human cost to the locals

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VANILLA AND THE BIRTH OF THE FLAVOR INDUSTRY A Big Discovery A major development in the science of flavor happened in 1858 when French biochemist Nicolas-Theodore Gobley produced an incredibly white and intensely aromatic substance from vanilla extract. He found that this single naturally occurring chemical was responsible for most of the vanilla bean’s flavor and named it “vanillin.” This was the first time a natural flavor was extracted from its food source. In 1874, German chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann determined vanillin’s chemical structure and made vanillin from coniferin, a chemical found in pine tree bark. For the first time, a flavor chemical was completely detached from its source in nature. A year later, they opened a factory to produce vanillin. This was the first factory in the world to produce an artificial flavor. (via MOFAD)

“Vanilla” can be a synonym for boring today, but the history of this ingredient derived from an orchid is anything but!

Obtaining real #vanilla pods was so difficult & expensive that it became the first artificial flavor created by chemists in the 1800s.

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This EEG brainwave reader lets us measure how eating different foods - like a Hershey's chocolate kiss or piece of sour watermelon candy - actually affects your brain's electrical activity.

It's amazing to see people react differently to these experiences!

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"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. "

When the brain synthesizes a flavor experience from sensory input, it also triggers complex feelings.

Memory & emotion may be stimulated - for French author Marcel Poust, a bite of madeleine dipped in tea famously transported him back to his childhood.

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Beyond taste buds, the tongue also has touch sensors, and some tastes fool us into thinking there is a physical effect with what are called chemestheitc sensations.

The best-known are spicy foods that seem “hot” & the “cooling” sensation of minty flavors.

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An easy way to understand the primary importance of smell in perceiving flavor is to try tasting a jellybean while holding your nose closed. You will find that you don't taste much at all - release it and inhale & the flavor will suddenly snap into focus!

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The essence of many foods can be evoked just by the main chemical compound that creates their aroma, and this can be tested at the exhibit using the smell synthesizer.

Once you get the hang of it, you can experiment with even more complex combinations!

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The tongue has an impressive 10,000 taste buds - but the nose contains 6 million scent receptors!

Chewing food makes aromas rise to the nose via the back of the mouth in a process called retronasal olfaction, which greatly enhances the flavor we perceive.

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Test Your Taste!

When arriving at the exhibit, you'll receive a little spoon - be sure to hold on to it as it will be useful at various points. For starters, you can check your own perceptions of the 5 basic flavors by sampling a liquid example of each.

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Ideas about what basic tastes the tongue perceives have changed over time & different cultures. Today, in addition to sweet, salty, sour & bitter we acknowledge also umami - a rich meaty or savory taste provided by chemical compounds known as glutamates.

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What does “flavor” mean?

Our brain creates a complex, unified impression of food using all senses. Taste & smell are most important, but flavor also takes input from sight, sound & touch. That info comes from basic chemicals that make up the food we eat.

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via mofad.org: Museum of Food and Drink - Flavor: The World to Your Brain - Flavor is a sensory journey through our bodies and our world, designed and curated by food scientists and culinary anthropologists. Unpack what really happens in our heads when we experience the flavors of food, discover the ways flavor companies engineer and design the flavors that we eat almost every day, and learn what natural and artificial flavoring really mean. With millions around the world losing their senses of smell and taste due to COVID-19, Flavor is a timely look at the sensory experience that makes us love food and drink! For more information on visiting MOFAD and to purchase tickets, click here. Interested in bringing your class to MOFAD? Send an inquiry to schoolgroups@mofad.org

The amazing & interactive exhibit Flavor: The World To Your Brain is at #MOFAD in DUMBO through the summer.

Coming to the end of my own time as a docent there, I thought I might reflect on my favorite parts of it for the next couple days.

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A recent sweet indulgence - deliciously dense chunks of ripe banana bread pudding well matched by a rich, creamy vanilla sauce, all made and generously shared with the #MOFAD crew by the talented @captainbrooklyn

Flavor: The World to Your Brain Flavor is a sensory journey through our bodies and our world, designed and curated by food scientists and culinary anthropologists. Unpack what really happens in our heads when we experience the flavors of food, discover the ways flavor companies engineer and design the flavors that we eat almost every day, and learn what natural and artificial flavoring really mean. With millions around the world losing their senses of smell and taste due to COVID-19, Flavor is a timely look at the sensory experience that makes us love food and drink!

Tucked away on the 2nd Fl of Empire Stores in DUMBO, #MOFAD - The Museum of Food and Drink - is a hidden gem of fun and information on all things edible

Excited to be serving as a volunteer docent for their current exhibit Flavor: The World To Your Brain

www.mofad.org/flavor/2