Article: Spray me A flavor

Spray Me A Flavour (abridged)
Feb.*22, 2006. 08:39*AM
JENNIFER BAIN

Toronto Star

Dieters, diabetics, health-conscious eaters and novelty seekers have
discovered New York chef David Burke's Flavor Sprays.

Burke launched the line in July, selling from his website, American
pharmacies, Costco in the U.S. and even his new Bloomingdale's café.
Four months later, Time magazine included the sprays in its "Most
Amazing Inventions of 2005'' issue.

"What we're really selling is flavour,'' Burke explains "If you can
eat healthy and still get the flavour, why not? You can keep these in
your glove compartment or your desk drawer.''

His travel suitcase bulges with two-ounce (60-millilitre) bottles of
Flavor Spray. They are mostly water mixed with a combination of natural
and/or artificial flavours, sucralose, cellulose gum, sodium benzoate
(a preservative) and citric acid (a natural preservative used to make
food and soft drinks acidic or tart). They are FDA-approved in the
United States, classified there as a food product, and boast zero
calories and zero grams of fat, carbs and proteins. They do register 10
milligrams of sodium for every two sprays.

Burke unpacks smoked bacon, ketchup, parmesan, butter, popcorn butter,
Memphis BBQ and Pepper City sprays and lays them out beside sweet
sprays like birthday cake, marshmallow, apple pie, chocolate fudge,
cheesecake and banana split, and fruit sprays like mango and pineapple.

Birthday cake has that ungodly taste of a gaudy, iced supermarket
creation. Chocolate fudge does taste like chocolate (not gourmet
chocolate, mind you ‹ the cheap stuff). Apple pie has hints of cinnamon
and, yes, cooked apples. You can taste these blind and easily figure
out what they are.

Gourmets are definitely not the target market here. People with health
and weight concerns are, although Burke suggests kids get a kick out of
adding banana split spray to their breakfast cereal and some flavours
taste great in martinis. Flavor Sprays were created to simulate the
taste of dieters' favourite foods while apparently eliminating the
guilt of eating them.

It's fair to say that most of our (healthy) testers failed to embrace
these sprays as a serious alternative to real food. Some were put off
by the preservatives, dubious about how natural/artificial flavours
really work, or annoyed how cloying scents lingered on their hands. At
least one felt ill and got a vicious headache, possibly induced by the
sucralose (Splenda) in the dessert sprays. Several wondered if the
birthday cake flavour was merely a novelty product to spray on a lover.

And yet, when you spray food (and not just your hand), the results are
striking. Mini cheeseburgers sprayed with smoked bacon really taste
like bacon cheeseburgers. Popcorn sprayed with butter tastes like
buttered popcorn. Indeed, these intense sprays are meant to be mixed
with everyday foods, like pasta, rice, cooked veggies, pork chops and
the like, and to be used instead of calorific, sugar-rich, fat-laden
gravies, dressings and sauces.

As Burke points out, each bottle costs $5.95 (U.S.) and contains about
400 sprays. Each serving of food needs one to two sprays, so this is a
relatively inexpensive way to add flavour.

--
Diva
*****
The Best Man For The Job Is A Woman

Ignoramus15109 wrote:

I believe that Annie mentioned these sprays recently.

I did, but I didn't have much in the way of information besides a
link to his site. I have bought four of his flavors (ranch, butter,
teriyaki, and marshmallow), and will review each when they get here and
I have a chance to try them (any day now!).

--
Annie

As of 02-17-06: 258/200.5/140 Standing at 5 foot 4.

57.5 pounds lost. 60.5 left to go. Started February/07/05

Come visit my weight-loss web site, Annie Takes Off.
http://webpages.charter.net/lenny13/DietFrontPage.html

"Annie Benson Lennaman" wrote in
message . ..


Ignoramus15109 wrote:

I believe that Annie mentioned these sprays recently.

I did, but I didn't have much in the way of information besides a
link to his site. I have bought four of his flavors (ranch, butter,
teriyaki, and marshmallow), and will review each when they get here and
I have a chance to try them (any day now!).

--
Annie

I'm curious how you plan to use the marshmallow flavoring.

Beverly

Beverly wrote:


I'm curious how you plan to use the marshmallow flavoring.

To be honest, none of the sweet flavors leap out to me as "gotta
have's". I wanted to try one, just out of curiousity. I didn't want
any of the fruit flavors because I get plenty of fake fruit flavors in
the sugar free candies I suck on. I thought that the marshmellow might
be interesting on popcorn, perhaps mixed with the buttery flavor. I'm
hoping for a "kettle corn" type exerience.

My flavors did come in the mail yesterday. I'll be experimenting
with them and reporting the results on Saturday.

--
Annie

As of 02-24-06: 258/198.5/140 Standing at 5 foot 4.

59.5 pounds lost. 58.5 left to go. Started February/07/05

Come visit my weight-loss web site, Annie Takes Off.
http://webpages.charter.net/lenny13/DietFrontPage.html