Philadelphia Weekly

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Nearly every product that sits in the middle aisles of the grocery store--from croutons to cake mix--includes the addition of "natural flavors." These are produced by companies like David Michael, which try their best to capture the essence of flavors from black pepper to pancakes. I recently attended the 2008 David Michael road show at the Union League, which featured everything from DMChoice� Natural Flavor Beef Filet Mignon Type 31942 to Cloud Emulsion No. 4515. My mind was freakin' blown.

Let's start with the first booth at the showcase. Pretend I'm in the Research and Development department of a large packaged food company. I've been wanting to develop a cup of noodles that tastes like pozole. Will I have an assembly line of workers chopping fresh ingredients to include in my packaged soup? No, se�or. Instead, I'll call upon David Michael's Mexican flavor library, which will provide me with: Natural Pozole Flavor No. 41366, Natural Identical Life Flavor No. 41295, DMChoice� Natural Onion Garlic Flavor No. 31966 and Artificial Corn Tortilla Flavor No. 21155. And there you have your Spanish hominy stew. No abuelita's elbow grease, no garlic skins to discard or onion tears to dry.

The road show includes a dizzying variety of flavors used in inventive ways. Giving customers ideas for how to use the product is the best way to encourage them to think about how they might use it. Trying to find a way to get kids to drink milk? Just let them add a little color and flavor into their morning cup of calcium using Moo-Makers. "Children can customize the strength of the flavor or even mix and match to create their own flavors," proclaims the company brochure. Purple Peach Marshmallow, anyone?

Encountering all these bottles in this swanky setting felt like going behind the curtain of Oz. What the hell was I thinking? That someone was grating the cheddar applied to my cheesy health-food popcorn? That a sore-handed man chopped garlic for my pizza sauce? Think again.

It wasn't until showcase No. 6, past the edible paint and the okonmiyaki savory pancake demonstration (using DMChoice� Natural Pork Flavor Powder No. 31888), that I finally turned to a friendly looking man from David Michael Beijing and asked him point-blank what he was selling. He gestured at a miniature rice cake speckled with dried Chinese red dates.

"The 8 Treasure Bar represents the Chinese belief in Yin Yang ... "

I cut him off. "What's the product?"

He pointed at some labeled bottles: Michaelok� Natural Flavor Red Date Type No. 3935, Michaelok� Natural Goji Berry Flavor No. 3936 and Artificial Bamboo Date Dumpling Flavor No. 31925.

Still perplexed, I cornered two young women attending the road show wearing name tags with a recognizable brand and asked them what they were doing here. They agreed to speak anonymously, for obvious reasons.

"We're trying to assess where the consumer is going and gauge their purchase intent." In other words, David Michael might be onto something with, say, DMChoice� Natural Flavor Pepperoni Type Powder No. 31865. It makes dark chicken sausage--which American consumers generally dislike but is cheaper to produce--taste instead like pork pepperoni.

"We're interested in the application of flavors," said the second woman. It might never occur to these product developers to add a hint of vanilla to their company's savory onion dip, but it occurred to someone at David Michael. Maybe people will be gunning for grab-and-go smoothies that taste like strawberry buttermilk pancakes.

The goal of these companies is to anticipate our next desire, our yet unknown cravings for yumberry whipped cream or savory butter biscotti. Willy Wonka's Violet Beauregarde is a shining example of insatiable curiosity. More often than not we'll always reach for the piece of gum that promises a three-course dinner.