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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren vogle Bam here ask someone to describe bubble gum flavor,

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Speaker 1: and most likely that person will be at a loss

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Speaker 1: for words other than you know bubblegum. Unlike other flavorings,

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Speaker 1: bubblegum is a mixture of volatile compounds, which are types

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Speaker 1: of compounds that evaporate and have odors. Here in the

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Speaker 1: United States, some flavorings are considered natural, a meaning that

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Speaker 1: they're made from plant or animal sources, including being grown

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Speaker 1: using microbes and labs. Other flavorings are considered artificial. Those

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Speaker 1: are made by chemically or mechanically synthesizing compounds in labs.

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Speaker 1: Though artificial flavorings can be molecularly identical to natural flavorings.

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Speaker 1: But there's no bubblegum, plant or animal. So what is

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Speaker 1: this flavor based on? More on that in a second,

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Speaker 1: because first we need to understand how flavor works, and

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Speaker 1: to understand how flavor works, we have to realize why

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Speaker 1: our sense of taste and smell work together and how

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Speaker 1: the two are so intertwined. Basically, molecules released by foods

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Speaker 1: stimulate nerve cells in the nose, mouth, and throat, which

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Speaker 1: transmit messages to the brain where specific smells or tastes

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Speaker 1: are identified. All factory cells, that is sent nerve cells

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Speaker 1: are stimulated by odors. Augustatory or taste. Nerve cells are

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Speaker 1: clustered in the five to ten thousand taste buds of

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Speaker 1: the mouth and throat, and they react to the foods

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Speaker 1: we eat. The difference between the two senses is that

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Speaker 1: taste focuses on distinguishing just five flavors sweet, salty, sour, bitter,

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Speaker 1: and savory, which is sometimes called umami. But our nose

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Speaker 1: can detect an astounding one trillion different odors, and so

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Speaker 1: it's the interactions between our senses of taste and smell

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Speaker 1: to create the flavors we know. For the article, this

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Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke by email

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Speaker 1: with Bob Boutine, president of Nectal Incorporated and Bentley Specialties Incorporated,

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Speaker 1: who's been working in flavor innovation for a long time.

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Speaker 1: His company develops candies and snacks for some of the

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Speaker 1: world's largest food companies. He said artificial flavors are a

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Speaker 1: combination of chemicals put together to mimic the ingredients seen

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Speaker 1: in the natural flavor. A good flavorist is very skilled

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Speaker 1: at sensing and tasting these various flavor compounds. Once a

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Speaker 1: flavorist identifies those compounds, Boutine explains, they can create a

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Speaker 1: similar flavor with either the same compounds or a mixture

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Speaker 1: of compounds that our senses identify similarly. It's complicated because

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Speaker 1: foods are complex. For example, more than two hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty volatile components have been identified in the standard variety

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Speaker 1: of banana that you can buy in most American grocery stores,

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Speaker 1: and that's only one type of banana. The artificial banana

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Speaker 1: flavoring that's added to some candies may be based on

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Speaker 1: an older variety of banana that isn't available anymore, called

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Speaker 1: the grow Michelle, which maybe why artificial banana flavoring doesn't

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Speaker 1: taste like banana to us today. But anyway, back to bubblegum,

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Speaker 1: a bubblegum flavor is absolutely made up, Boutine said. Bubblegum

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Speaker 1: flavor is a strawberry banana punch type of flavor. It

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Speaker 1: was created to appeal to the children's market as well

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Speaker 1: as some adults. It gives long lasting flavor and chemically

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Speaker 1: does well in the chewing gums formulation. Today, there are

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Speaker 1: so many different flavors of bubblegum on the market that

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Speaker 1: one exact recipe simply doesn't exist. But one thing we

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Speaker 1: do know is that the first bubblegum was accidentally created

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Speaker 1: by one Walter Dimer for the Fleer Corporation in Philadelphia.

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Speaker 1: In he's credited with the indescribable bubblegum flavor that we

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Speaker 1: know today and for making the gum pink because that

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Speaker 1: was the only food coloring he happened to have on hand.

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Speaker 1: So bubble gum flavor is a sort of fruit punch.

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Speaker 1: Different flavoring manufacturers these days all have their own formulas,

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Speaker 1: which can include everything from the standard strawberry banana to

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Speaker 1: other fruits, to spices and other seasonings like cinnamon, cloves, vanilla,

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Speaker 1: and winter green. Buttine explained, I'm not sure it's specific

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Speaker 1: to anyone flavor, but rather a blending of several a banana, strawberry, cherry,

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Speaker 1: a little orange, and or lemon. The exact ratios are

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Speaker 1: specific to each company. Some want it to be more banana,

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Speaker 1: others more strawberry ish. Perhaps the only consensus is that

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Speaker 1: the flavor is fruity. Will buy that today's episode is

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Speaker 1: based on the article What's the de old Bubblegum Flavor

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Speaker 1: on house stuffworks dot Com written by Sarah Glme. Brain

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Speaker 1: Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: house stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by

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