Artificial flavors we love

[Katie Meadow]

Once my dentist described to me the amount of restoration needed in the mouth of one fifteen year old Jolly Rancher addict I never touched another one. Just saying!

On topic: I agree that Cheetos dust is irresistible, and I will always love it, all the more so since I don't allow myself to have it very often. However, I don't feel the same about packaged mac & cheese products; they all seem repulsive to me.

Is the sweet onion flavor in Maui chips artificial? I also like that.

Anyone tasted their kid's anti-biotic liquid Augmentin? That's the pinnacle of artificial banana flavor, if you go for that sort of thing. And don't worry, your kid doesn't need the full dose, so feel free. I don't even like real bananas.

[Beebs]

Fake lime flavour. And it must be green.

[rebecca]

Sour cream and onion pringles. Forget the "sour" "cream" and "onion," I am not even convinced that they are potatoes! And yet, once you pop you can't stop. Right? That's the thing?

[Lolagranola74]

Not sure if it's just an English thing but the blue raspberry flavoured stuff that dyes your tongue electric blue (makes for wonderful blue-tongued skink impressions)- love it in ice-pops, slushies, sherbert. Although, I do draw the line at blue raspberry flavoured candy floss/cotton candy, which I tried at the fair the other day. Just didn't taste like candy floss- although it did lead to a great series of photos of my niece and I comparing our vivid blue tongues.

[Shelby]

Grape pop.

[BadRabbit]

Liquid smoke

Edit: Never mind. I see it's already been covered.

Edited May 3, 2011 by BadRabbit (log)

[mkayahara]

I guess I am pretty much anti-anything fruit-flavored.

Or artificial butter-flavored.

Funny, I actually think that a touch of diacetyl, deftly used, is a great flavour. (Mostly in microwave popcorn.) It is easy to overdo it, though.

My guilty confession is artificial "sour apple" flavour: I grew up eating sour apple gummy rings, and when I discovered you could get that exact same flavour in "Martini" form... wow! I've outgrown the Appletinis, but I still crave the gummy rings every now and then.

[karlos]

Not sure if it's just an English thing but the blue raspberry flavoured stuff that dyes your tongue electric blue (makes for wonderful blue-tongued skink impressions)- love it in ice-pops, slushies, sherbert. Although, I do draw the line at blue raspberry flavoured candy floss/cotton candy, which I tried at the fair the other day. Just didn't taste like candy floss- although it did lead to a great series of photos of my niece and I comparing our vivid blue tongues.

Ooh, yes. I cannot resist for reasons that escape logic any blue candy. I even enjoy blue cotton candy. Definitely not only an English thing.

Edited May 4, 2011 by karlos (log)

[Shelby]

Once my dentist described to me the amount of restoration needed in the mouth of one fifteen year old Jolly Rancher addict I never touched another one. Just saying!

On topic: I agree that Cheetos dust is irresistible, and I will always love it, all the more so since I don't allow myself to have it very often. However, I don't feel the same about packaged mac & cheese products; they all seem repulsive to me.

Is the sweet onion flavor in Maui chips artificial? I also like that.

Anyone tasted their kid's anti-biotic liquid Augmentin? That's the pinnacle of artificial banana flavor, if you go for that sort of thing. And don't worry, your kid doesn't need the full dose, so feel free. I don't even like real bananas.

It's so funny that you bring this up. I had a box stuck up in the cabinet and since I was by myself for dinner last night, I thought I'd give it a go. I hadn't had it since 1993 or before. OMG I don't know how I ingested it back then. It didn't even taste cheesy.

Now I have a whole tupperware container of leftover in my fridge.

[toolprincess]

Atomic fireballs and sour gummies.

[pep.]

Stroh rum. I try to replace it with "real" rum, but nothing get's you quite the same taste in your pastries. Supposedly, the essences used are all natural, but I really doubt that.

[patti]

Grape pop.

Ditto! And grape Popsicles.

Butter rum Lifesavers.

Edited May 4, 2011 by patti (log)

[JBailey]

I have been so tempted by the flavor offerings at L'Epicerie. Each bottle looks tempting, but maybe it is just my hope that the flavor description equals my memory of that flavor.

[pastameshugana]

I'd rather eat road tar than put anything made by Jolly Rancher in my mouth.

Say it ain't so! I love the flavors of them, but they take too long to eat. Luckily I discovered Jolly Rancher jelly beans. Now I can have more than one flavor every 20 minutes.

[rebecca]

I'd rather eat road tar than put anything made by Jolly Rancher in my mouth.

Say it ain't so! I love the flavors of them, but they take too long to eat. Luckily I discovered Jolly Rancher jelly beans. Now I can have more than one flavor every 20 minutes.

I dunno - I kinda like being able to savor the taste for a longer period... a jelly bean disappears too fast for me. But I am all on board with Jolly Rancher flavors!! Watermelon, wahooo!!!

[jorach]

Vanilla Triple Thick® Shake:

Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream: Milk, sugar, cream, nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, dextrose, sodium citrate, artificial vanilla flavor, sodium phosphate, carrageenan, disodium phosphate, cellulose gum, vitamin A palmitate.

Maybe off topic but:

I think it's funny that if the recipe used real sugar and real vanilla flavoring it'd be in Modernist Cuisine and we'd all be high fiving each other for being smart enough to make a milkshake with hydrocolloids.

[emilyr]

I will eat anything labeled "white cheddar flavor." Anything. And I really like the spicy, red-hot cinnamon flavor that's not really cinnamon-y at all.

But I HATE fake mint flavor and most flavors used in chewing gums. They make me nauseous.

[NoelW]

"watermelon jolly rancher"

sour green apple competes with that.

Edited May 11, 2011 by NoelW (log)

[barbc]

I think this all goes back to what we ate in our childhoods. Since mine was in the 70's and 80's artificial flavors win in the comfort food catagory. My mom had too large a family to feed we didn't eat boxed dinners so my artificial flavors are candies. Blow pops, Tootsie Rolls, Life Savers, and those (allowed) candies Hall's Mentho eucalyptus.

I wonder what my children will find as comfort foods. ;-)

[Rebecca263]

I adore "wasabi"- but I suppose that doesn't count amongst the food illuminati here- as it is an actual item- horseradish.

Artificial almond flavor(tastes like cherries but better!), Butter Rum Lifesavers, ANY flavoring used by Blue Diamond Almond, fake banana and ANY frozen ice confection flavor are all tops as well.

I DON'T like artificial lime, mint or chocolate flavors.

[all-u-care-2]

Grape pop.

Grape Kool-Aid® FunFizz". Package lists minimal amounts of natural and artificial flavours, not detailed as to origin. Sweetening: sorbitol and aspartame. They make punch and lemonade as well, but the grape is far superior.

I'm old enough to remember, but for unexplained reasons was not exposed to, Fizzies and its ilk.