Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogle Bam here ask someone to describe bubble gum flavor,
Speaker 1: and most likely that person will be at a loss
Speaker 1: for words other than you know bubblegum. Unlike other flavorings,
Speaker 1: bubblegum is a mixture of volatile compounds, which are types
Speaker 1: of compounds that evaporate and have odors. Here in the
Speaker 1: United States, some flavorings are considered natural, a meaning that
Speaker 1: they're made from plant or animal sources, including being grown
Speaker 1: using microbes and labs. Other flavorings are considered artificial. Those
Speaker 1: are made by chemically or mechanically synthesizing compounds in labs.
Speaker 1: Though artificial flavorings can be molecularly identical to natural flavorings.
Speaker 1: But there's no bubblegum, plant or animal. So what is
Speaker 1: this flavor based on? More on that in a second,
Speaker 1: because first we need to understand how flavor works, and
Speaker 1: to understand how flavor works, we have to realize why
Speaker 1: our sense of taste and smell work together and how
Speaker 1: the two are so intertwined. Basically, molecules released by foods
Speaker 1: stimulate nerve cells in the nose, mouth, and throat, which
Speaker 1: transmit messages to the brain where specific smells or tastes
Speaker 1: are identified. All factory cells, that is sent nerve cells
Speaker 1: are stimulated by odors. Augustatory or taste. Nerve cells are
Speaker 1: clustered in the five to ten thousand taste buds of
Speaker 1: the mouth and throat, and they react to the foods
Speaker 1: we eat. The difference between the two senses is that
Speaker 1: taste focuses on distinguishing just five flavors sweet, salty, sour, bitter,
Speaker 1: and savory, which is sometimes called umami. But our nose
Speaker 1: can detect an astounding one trillion different odors, and so
Speaker 1: it's the interactions between our senses of taste and smell
Speaker 1: to create the flavors we know. For the article, this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke by email
Speaker 1: with Bob Boutine, president of Nectal Incorporated and Bentley Specialties Incorporated,
Speaker 1: who's been working in flavor innovation for a long time.
Speaker 1: His company develops candies and snacks for some of the
Speaker 1: world's largest food companies. He said artificial flavors are a
Speaker 1: combination of chemicals put together to mimic the ingredients seen
Speaker 1: in the natural flavor. A good flavorist is very skilled
Speaker 1: at sensing and tasting these various flavor compounds. Once a
Speaker 1: flavorist identifies those compounds, Boutine explains, they can create a
Speaker 1: similar flavor with either the same compounds or a mixture
Speaker 1: of compounds that our senses identify similarly. It's complicated because
Speaker 1: foods are complex. For example, more than two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty volatile components have been identified in the standard variety
Speaker 1: of banana that you can buy in most American grocery stores,
Speaker 1: and that's only one type of banana. The artificial banana
Speaker 1: flavoring that's added to some candies may be based on
Speaker 1: an older variety of banana that isn't available anymore, called
Speaker 1: the grow Michelle, which maybe why artificial banana flavoring doesn't
Speaker 1: taste like banana to us today. But anyway, back to bubblegum,
Speaker 1: a bubblegum flavor is absolutely made up, Boutine said. Bubblegum
Speaker 1: flavor is a strawberry banana punch type of flavor. It
Speaker 1: was created to appeal to the children's market as well
Speaker 1: as some adults. It gives long lasting flavor and chemically
Speaker 1: does well in the chewing gums formulation. Today, there are
Speaker 1: so many different flavors of bubblegum on the market that
Speaker 1: one exact recipe simply doesn't exist. But one thing we
Speaker 1: do know is that the first bubblegum was accidentally created
Speaker 1: by one Walter Dimer for the Fleer Corporation in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: In he's credited with the indescribable bubblegum flavor that we
Speaker 1: know today and for making the gum pink because that
Speaker 1: was the only food coloring he happened to have on hand.
Speaker 1: So bubble gum flavor is a sort of fruit punch.
Speaker 1: Different flavoring manufacturers these days all have their own formulas,
Speaker 1: which can include everything from the standard strawberry banana to
Speaker 1: other fruits, to spices and other seasonings like cinnamon, cloves, vanilla,
Speaker 1: and winter green. Buttine explained, I'm not sure it's specific
Speaker 1: to anyone flavor, but rather a blending of several a banana, strawberry, cherry,
Speaker 1: a little orange, and or lemon. The exact ratios are
Speaker 1: specific to each company. Some want it to be more banana,
Speaker 1: others more strawberry ish. Perhaps the only consensus is that
Speaker 1: the flavor is fruity. Will buy that today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article What's the de old Bubblegum Flavor
Speaker 1: on house stuffworks dot Com written by Sarah Glme. Brain
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