Years ago I remember reading an Atlantic article about a company in New Jersey with a lab where they make artificial flavors and aromas that seem deceptively read. It was interesting to get a peek about how such stuff as sour cream potatoes is created.
Ninja edit
I found the article and I laughted. I entirely forgot the article starts and features none other than Starbucks pumpkin-spice aroma/flavoring.
Late in August—early for fall, I thought—I stood dutifully in line at Starbucks with a friend as she awaited her first pumpkin-spice latte of the season. Once she had it, she offered me a sip. The drink didn't remind me very much of pumpkins. So what was it? Nothing homey or autumnal here: just lactones, ketones, cyclotenes, vanillin, and pyrazines.
[...]
The New Jersey-based Flavor and Fragrance Specialties, Inc., is one such manufacturer. The company produces many different flavorings for all sorts of companies, many of which prefer confidentiality. Flavor and Fragrance Specialties makes pumpkin-spice essences that can be tailored to soaps, candles, perfumes, cakes, butters, and pasta, among other products. This year, the company tested out pumpkin-spice foie-gras mashed potatoes.
Years ago I remember reading an Atlantic article about a company in New Jersey with a lab where they make artificial flavors and aromas that seem deceptively read. It was interesting to get a peek about how such stuff as sour cream potatoes is created.
Ninja edit
I found the article and I laughted. I entirely forgot the article starts and features none other than Starbucks pumpkin-spice aroma/flavoring.