AI Summary
5 min readIn the 1990s, the beverage aisle was a two-party system: Coke versus Pepsi. Today, that aisle is a riot of options—sparkling teas with "adaptagens," functional sodas that claim to help you sleep or focus, and flavors like Dubai Chocolate Pepsi and creamy coconut Dr. Pepper. Planet Money co-host Jeff Guo took fellow host Kenny Malone to a supermarket to marvel at this transformation, then went to Louisville to find out why it happened. The answer, it turns out, involves advances in flavor chemistry, the invention of new beverage categories, and a dramatic lowering of the barriers to entry for upstart drink makers.
The Flavor Lab: More Building Blocks Than Ever
A surprising amount of the new drink variety can be traced to one company in Kentucky called Flavorman. They are the behind-the-scenes beverage developers for brands that don't have their own in-house food scientists—which is almost everyone except Coke and Pepsi. Chief flavorist Tom Gibson works in a lab full of hundreds of tiny bottles containing individual aroma chemicals, the building blocks of flavor. He explained that a single fruit flavor, like strawberry, is actually a complex blend of dozens of these chemicals. Some of the most useful components are counterintuitive: one key aroma chemical that shows up in ripe berries also appears in sweat and vomit. "When you're eating strawberry in the morning, perhaps yo
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:25) **The Mystery: Why is the beverage aisle exploding with new drinks?** - The host sets up the puzzle: the beverage aisle has transformed from a simple Coke vs. Pepsi choice to a bewildering array of functional sodas, exotic flavors, and new concepts like "adaptages" and "poopies."
- 2 (05:01) **Enter Flavor Man: The Industry's Secret Weapon** - The investigation begins at a Kentucky company called Flavor Man, which secretly designs new drinks for brands that lack in-house food scientists.
- 3 (07:35) **Step 1: The Flavor Lab - How New Tastes Are Invented** - Chief Flavorist Tom Gibson demonstrates the science of creating new flavors from hundreds of aroma chemicals, explaining how the palette of available flavors has expanded dramatically.
- 4 (12:11) **The "Delicious Cycle" of Exotic Flavors** - New flavor experiments are changing the American palate, creating a feedback loop that drives demand for even weirder and more exotic tastes.
- 5 (13:11) **Side Quest: Designing a Planet Money Beverage** - The hosts ask Flavor Man to create a drink that captures the essence of the podcast, sparking curiosity and delight.
- 6 (14:07) **Step 2: The Concept Lab - Why Drinks Need a "Job"** - Chief Technical Officer Kristen Wem explains how beverages now need a concept (energy, hydration, sleep) to succeed, which is the second reason for the industry's growth.
- 7 (16:56) **Tasting the Future: Mocktails, Broths, and Weird Concepts** - The hosts sample some of Kristen's current projects, including a tasty Aperol spritz mocktail and a bizarre pineapple beef bone broth protein drink.
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Show Notes
Today on the show, we go behind the scenes at one of the nation’s top-secret beverage laboratories. The food scientists in this lab have quietly helped companies design many of the new drinks on the shelves these days. We taste things we have never tasted before, including a sports hydration … broth? We learn what a strawberry has in common with a block of cheese. And we discover why the business of beverages will never be the same again.
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This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed and Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and edited by Jess Jiang. Vito Emanuel is our fact-checker, and Kwesi Lee engineered the show. Alex Goldmark is the executive producer of Planet Money.
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