Raffi Khatchadourian, Annals of Science, “The Taste Makers,” The New Yorker, November 23, 2009
If you haven't read this yet, do so immediately--only the abstract is available online, unfortunately--you now need a digital subscription to read most of TheNY online, alas, but you can get it from the library--I now do this for most of my mags--avoids the horrible huge pile of mags for the recycling.
ABSTRACT: ANNALS OF SCIENCE about Michelle Hagen, a flavorist at Givaudan, the largest creator of flavors and fragrances in the world. Growing up, Michelle Hagen lived near a factory in Cincinnati that produced what she and her sisters called The Smell. The aroma wasn’t consistent: it was dynamic and unpredictable. Many of the odors triggered specific associations—birthday cake, popcorn, chicken-noodle soup. She never imagined that she would end up working in the factory that made The Smell, but that is what happened. The factory belongs to a Swiss company called Givaudan.
I am totally fascinated by the science of flavor and flagrance chemistry, but in a Green sense this article is interesting as it seems to imply that many products that we don't think of as having flavor additives, in fact do so--it's that pesky "natural flavors" on the ingredients list...
If you like neon-colored sports drinks, or something with açaí or pomegranate or huckleberry on its label, you may well have tasted one of Hagen’s creations
My childhood driving past a factory scent memory was driving across the bridge (the Betsy Ross?) from PA to NJ to get to the shore in the summer--there was a booze distillery just by the highway and i remember how horrible it smelled
.
A later memory was the Dickenson witch hazel factory in Somerset NJ--this is still one of my favorite scents.
.
A later memory was the Dickenson witch hazel factory in Somerset NJ--this is still one of my favorite scents.
