Where Do All Those Fake Fruit Flavors Actually Come From?

It’s a fact we’ve all come to accept: Fruit flavors are nothing like the real thing. In a sense, that’s kind of the fun of them. Nobody’s really under the illusion that fruit candies actually taste like the true version, but we’re all willing to suspend our disbelief for a brief moment while we eat them, and in doing so, enjoy an alternative reality. I’ve always wanted to cross into a parallel universe, and fruity snacks give me the chance to do just that.

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But, given that most of us ultimately live our lives in pursuit of the truth (which is a good thing, really), it’s natural to wonder how we got to this point – and where these fake fruit flavors actually come from. Do they have any relationship to the real thing? And what’s blue raspberry, anyway? I’m here to answer your questions, flavor by flavor.

Banana

Banana flavors in candy and desserts might feel the most removed from the actual fruit we eat daily. As it turns out, though, it does have a key relationship to one variety. Apparently, artificial banana flavor was formulated to taste like the Gros Michel, a type of banana that had higher concentrations of isoamyl acetate. 

It’s this compound that we taste when we eat banana candy. Modern Cavendish bananas have a much lower concentration of it. The Gros Michel, which was the dominant form of banana until the 1950s, was virtually wiped out in the mid-20th century by a huge fungal outbreak. It lives on, though, in our flavorings.

Watermelon

The problem with trying to emulate watermelon’s flavor in candy lies in the fact that it’s very complex. So complex and unstable, in fact, that scientists haven’t been able to accurately distil it into one flavor profile that they can put in food, due to technology simply not being advanced enough yet.

As such, said scientists landed on an ester named ethyl butyrate, which they used to build an artificial watermelon flavor that resembles the real thing as much as possible. That’s all to say that it’s still fairly far away from it, but hey – it’s the best we’re gonna get for now. 

Grape

The history of grape flavor extends back to the late 1800s, when scientists managed to isolate methyl anthranilate, a chemical found in orange blossom. Alongside its use in early perfumes, these folks also found that it resembled the flavor of Concord grapes, where the chemical also resides. 

As such, it became the source of all artificial grape flavors, while the Concord grape was gradually replaced by other varieties on supermarket shelves. You can still find them, of course – and they’re used to make grape juice – but everyday grapes now often bear a different flavor. 

Blue Raspberry

Blue raspberry is, of course, non-naturally occurring – and its combination of color and flavor is entirely man-made. In the mid-20th century, food scientists found themselves with a problem: There were too many red fruits. Cherries, strawberries, and raspberries all had the same shade, and they needed to find a way to differentiate them.

Thus, blue raspberry was born. Food scientists used a combo of blue food dyes and esters derived from pineapple, cherry, and banana flavors to develop this all-new concept. It was a hit, and it’s stuck around to this day.