There is a small chance that this is actually a true fact, but I’ve never been able to find any source that backs it up. I haven’t looked hard, but I have looked, and my google-fu is usually pretty good
I remember hearing once that “blue raspberry” flavor exists because when food scientists were trying to come up with a formula for artificial raspberry flavoring they just couldn’t get it quite right, they got pretty close, but not quite close enough for people to buy that it tastes like raspberries. But some marketing guru decided it was good enough and they’d just color it blue and people would accept it “of course it doesn’t taste like regular raspberries, this is blue raspberry, it’s different, it’s supposed to taste like that”
And yes, blue raspberries kind of actually exist. They probably used that as justification banking on the fact that most people don’t actually know what they taste like.
There’s also some stuff about a certain red dye being banned at one point, and marketing also wanting to differentiate raspberry because people already associated red with flavors like cherry, strawberry, watermelon, etc. and those are probably true as well, but I don’t think those reasons are incompatible with this explanation.
I think the marketing history of using blue to distinguish raspberry from other red fruit flavors (cherry, strawberry, etc) is true. Sources also say candy and drink companies wanted to get away from unsafe Red 2 dye like you mention.
Fruit flavors can be complex combinations of esters and other compounds. But the core taste/scent of raspberry seems pretty straightforward though, mostly just a ketone and ethyl formate.
There is a small chance that this is actually a true fact, but I’ve never been able to find any source that backs it up. I haven’t looked hard, but I have looked, and my google-fu is usually pretty good
I remember hearing once that “blue raspberry” flavor exists because when food scientists were trying to come up with a formula for artificial raspberry flavoring they just couldn’t get it quite right, they got pretty close, but not quite close enough for people to buy that it tastes like raspberries. But some marketing guru decided it was good enough and they’d just color it blue and people would accept it “of course it doesn’t taste like regular raspberries, this is blue raspberry, it’s different, it’s supposed to taste like that”
And yes, blue raspberries kind of actually exist. They probably used that as justification banking on the fact that most people don’t actually know what they taste like.
There’s also some stuff about a certain red dye being banned at one point, and marketing also wanting to differentiate raspberry because people already associated red with flavors like cherry, strawberry, watermelon, etc. and those are probably true as well, but I don’t think those reasons are incompatible with this explanation.
I think the marketing history of using blue to distinguish raspberry from other red fruit flavors (cherry, strawberry, etc) is true. Sources also say candy and drink companies wanted to get away from unsafe Red 2 dye like you mention.
Fruit flavors can be complex combinations of esters and other compounds. But the core taste/scent of raspberry seems pretty straightforward though, mostly just a ketone and ethyl formate.
https://i0.wp.com/www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/The-Chemistry-of-Raspberries.png