Yesterday one of my followers on Twitter mentioned that
she wants Nutella Oreos. I jumped all over that. I work for a major flavor
company. I can’t tell you what flavors we make and what companies we work with,
but I can tell you that if there ever was a Nutella Oreo or if one is in the
works, my coworkers would know about it. So what, exactly, do I do to make
money so that I can spend my free time writing? I make flavors. Here’s more:
When I tell people I work as a flavor lab tech, most look
confused. I understand where they’re coming from since, before I applied to my
current company, I had no idea that the world of flavors and fragrances existed.
Sure, I knew things tasted or smelled good, but I’d never given it much
thought. So here’s a little insight into a hidden world. I can’t tell you much—I’ve
signed a confidentiality agreement—but I can tell you enough.
For starters, when you’re in the grocery store, take a
good look at labels. Most of them say your food’s made with natural, natural
and artificial, or straight up artificial flavors. You can find this on anything
ranging from cake mixes, boxed rice, ice cream, breaded meats, alcohol, to soft
drinks. I could list a whole lot more—flavors are everywhere.
What I do is make those flavors. I work primarily with
new flavors, making quantities in 2-8 oz that we ship to customers. These
customers then put the flavor in their base and, if it works, they can decide
to buy the flavor. They can also decide they want the flavor revised – if, for
example, the strawberry flavor tastes too unripe – and the flavor comes back to
my coworkers and me. I don’t create the flavors. We have specially trained
flavorists/chemists for that. I take the flavorist’s formula for the flavor,
gather the chemicals together, and add a specific quantity of each chemical to
a beaker.
One more thing you should know about flavors: they’re
used at pretty small quantities—0.1-1.0%, depending on the base. This means
that flavors are very concentrated. So when I’m making a flavor in my beaker,
sometimes the smell is pretty strong. When I’m making something like mango or
chocolate, it’s not a big deal. But when I’m making a taco or fish flavor, the
flavor stinks and I stink. Some flavors dissipate quickly. Others—like those
fish flavors—linger. There’s a specific chemical in fish flavors that smells
just like a fish market or an open air aquarium. I don’t find it pleasant and
it lingers like crazy. Some days, I have to shower as soon as I come home. Some
mornings, I get it my car and find the smell of whatever flavor I made the day
before.
Though my company in Cincinnati doesn’t work much with
fragrances, the idea is pretty much the same. The same general chemicals go
into candles, laundry detergent, lip balms, etc. I pay more attention to
fragrances and flavors than I ever did before. It’s fascinating. Try putting
different brands of strawberry yogurt next to each other and then taste and
smell each one. Differences are there, sometimes huge differences.
The best part? All of this helps me be a better writer. I
get exposed to a lot of vocabulary about the way things taste and smell. I can
tell you that no two strawberries taste alike and there are about a hundred
words to describe the differences. I won’t list them here, but I toss them in
my writing when I get a chance. I paint better word pictures because I work
with flavors. But we’re not going to talk about my writing today, right? Today,
let’s focus on pretty word pictures instead of Pitch Wars, shall we? K, thanks
(:
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