Artificial Flavors and the Weaponizing of Words
We’re selective (and usually wrong) in what we think of as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ when it comes to food.
Many years ago, my uncle told me that New Jersey was the artificial flavor capital of the world, and I have thought about this way too much ever since.
Indeed, there are dozens of companies that manufacture artificial flavors located in New Jersey. Givaudan, a Swiss company, is the world’s largest flavor and fragrance company, with its US headquarters in East Hanover. I would love a trip to their Innovation Centre in Kemptthal, Switzerland, but I’d be happy with a tour of any of the New Jersey labs that make artificial flavors and fragrances.
I know how strange this sounds.
But I have a candle that smells exactly like a cashmere sweater.
I could never in a million years describe what a cashmere sweater smells like in words, but I could pick out the smell in a lineup. It’s very particular, and it’s different from the smell of other types of wool. And that exact smell is replicated in my candle.
I have an extremely sensitive sense of smell and taste, and the fact that such specific smells and tastes can be created using manufactured chemical reactions seems like magic to me.
