eli5: Why do artificially flavored drinks and foods taste artificial and not like the real thing?
In: Chemistry
Real flavors come from a very complex mix of many different molecules found within something, even if there’s one or two dominant molecules. For example, grapes get *most* of their flavor from a molecule called *methyl anthranilate*. That molecule is trivial to make artificially from petroleum byproducts. But grapes are made of a *lot* of stuff. [Here’s a paper listing them](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/files/page/files/compositionofgrapes.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiJqpTc6pryAhUII6wKHYSFAy8QFnoECAQQAg&usg=AOvVaw23nEzVYQCATmQYOrWJbkD6) (pdf download warning). Any of those myriad molecules could contribute to subtle differences in taste. And scientists don’t actually know which ones in what amount matter to our sense of taste.
Taste is complicated. Some molecules activate more than one taste receptor. A molecule by itself may not taste much like anything, but when combined with another one it emphasizes that other one, or dulls it. For example, a pinch of salt will out a lot of flavors, even ones you wouldn’t normally associate with salt, like chocolate.
Replicating the exact combination of only the molecules that matter in exactly the right amount is virtually impossible – unless you just straight up make a whole grape.
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