Chemicals Between Us

Who said everything has to be natural?

We have been behaving as properly as possible for years.

We used real tea. We used real spices. We dried the fruit, grated the peel, and ground the root. When we said vanilla, we wanted vanilla in it; when we said cinnamon, we wanted cinnamon in it. If we needed to change the color of a blend, we added another herb. If the aroma wasn't enough, we used more raw materials.

In short, we went above and beyond to make a 100% natural product.

Then we looked around.

You were drinking pink drinks.

The orange ones too.

You loved mangoes that smelled more like mangoes than mangoes themselves, pomegranates that were redder than pomegranates, and things that tasted more like apples than apples could ever reach.

We received the message.

Welcome to Chemicals Between Us.

You asked for it.

Okay, you didn't tell us that word for word.

No one enters the shop and says:

"Hi, if possible, could I get something that has the idea of fruit in it rather than actual fruit?"

He didn't say.

But for years, global consumption habits have more or less indicated the same thing.

Because people don't always want what's complicated. Sometimes all they want is a sweet, bright, intense, and utterly familiar taste— something they know will be there the moment they open the lid.

So why do we love them?

The interesting thing is this: the appeal of artificially flavored drinks isn't just that they are cheap or easy to make.

Because taste isn't just something we perceive with our tongue. Smell, color, expectation, memory, and context all work together.

The cherry drink you had as a child may not have actually tasted like cherries. But years later, when you smell that same scent, your brain might give you something far more valuable than cherries:

Summer of 1987.

Therefore, the fact that some artificial flavors don't exactly resemble real fruit isn't necessarily a flaw.

Over time, they created their own taste categories.

"Banana flavor" might now be something independent of bananas.

"Strawberry flavor" can be perceived as more strawberry-like than the strawberries themselves.

And what we call a "green apple" is sometimes more a concept related to the candies we ate in childhood than to botany.

The actual fruit varies slightly each time.

Aroma, on the other hand, delivers where it promises.

Every. Time.

How much of a mango can one mango be?

One of the interesting things the aroma industry does is translate the complex taste and smell experience found in nature into a few more distinct cues.

Imagine a real mango.

It's sweet but slightly tart. Depending on the variety, it can have resinous, floral, tropical, or even slightly green notes. It varies depending on its ripeness. A mango is magnificent; anything next to it is just okay.

No one would expect this kind of ambiguity from a "mango-flavored" product.

His task is much simpler:

MANGO!

In capital letters.

Flavoring formulations often try to do exactly that: to highlight the familiar characteristics a consumer recognizes of a particular taste.

The result is sometimes not a replica of the real fruit.

It's a caricature of fruit.

And the advantage of cartoons is that you don't have to wait five seconds to figure out who's being drawn.

What exactly is this thing we call a powdered drink?

Formulas vary from product to product, but the architecture of classic flavored beverage powders is surprisingly familiar.

Typically, the basic structure begins with sugar or another carrier . Then, acidity regulators such as citric acid can be used to regulate sourness and the overall taste profile, flavorings to create the characteristic aroma and taste, colorings to complement the visual appeal, and anti-caking agents to reduce the product's sticking together during storage.

Some formulas may also contain real fruit pieces, fruit powders, spices, or other ingredients.

Then all of these are mixed together into a dry and homogeneous mixture.

You add water.

You mix it.

And what was a whitish powder just seconds ago suddenly:

POMEGRANATE.

At least culturally, the idea of the pomegranate is something we agree on.

Chemistry can be quite fun sometimes.

Why is color so important?

Because our eyes drink the beverage before our tongue does.

If a drink is dark red, our brain starts expecting something from the pomegranate, cherry, strawberry, or berry family even before we bring the glass to our mouths.

The bright yellow-orange color reminds us of mango, orange, or tropical fruit.

Green?

Apple. Lime. Maybe mint.

When the expected relationship between a drink's color and aroma is disrupted, even our perception of taste can change.

Therefore, coloring isn't just an ingredient used to "make it look nice." It's also part of the story the product tells us even before we drink it.

Nature does this with quite complex pigments.

Things are a little easier with our pink packages.

So why do people still drink these?

Because sometimes we don't want gastronomy.

We want something to be beautiful.

Easy to prepare.

It should be sweet.

It should be cold.

To remind us of something from our childhood.

To taste the same every time.

The fact that the glass looks ridiculously good on Instagram.

Or perhaps just on Wednesday afternoon at 4:20 PM, our brain:

I WANT A PINK THING.

to say.

Trying to explain all our consumption choices solely in terms of refined taste would be giving people a little too much credit.

Sometimes our choices are a matter of culture.

Sometimes it's memory.

Sometimes it's convenient.

Sometimes it's curiosity.

Sometimes it's sweet, cool, and fluorescent pink.

And there's nothing in this that will bring about the end of the world.

Why does ANTI-MAMA RAM exist?

Because the idea of creating a product line that does pretty much the opposite of everything Mama Ram does seemed funny to us.

Mama Ram:

"We cut the bergamot peel ourselves and put it in this tea."

ANTI-MAM RAM:

AROMA.

Mama Ram:

"This entire color comes from hibiscus."

ANTI-MAM RAM:

PEA GREEN.

Mama Ram:

"Let's talk about which region this spice comes from."

ANTI-MAM RAM:

MANGO.

"From where?"

MANGO.

So instead of trying to hide it, we decided to write it in big letters on the package:

CHEMICALS BETWEEN US.

We also clearly stated the contents on the back.

You know what you're getting.

We also know what we sell.

Everyone is relaxed.

This is not a health product.

Thankfully, we don't pretend that way.

Chemicals Between Us is not a detox, an antioxidant miracle, a superfood, an ancient healing formula, or a secret elixir drunk for 900 years in a forgotten village in the Himalayas.

It is a flavored beverage powder.

You can drink it if you feel like it.

If she doesn't want that, we'll brew some Assam.

Both options are available.

In fact, the same person is allowed to want a single garden in Darjeeling on Monday, and something fluorescent pink on Friday night.

There is no food legislation yet that stipulates that human character must be consistent.

In conclusion

We have been explaining nature to you for all these years.

We explained the origin.

We talked about the harvest.

We explained the processing method.

We talked about the cultivar.

We used real vanilla.

We chased after saffron.

We dried pomegranates.

We cut the orange peel.

And then one day we said:

Ok.

You won.

Add some water.

Add the powder.

Mix it. Dissolve it. Don't question it.

ANTI-MAM RAM

CHEMICALS BETWEEN US

Synthetic Flavors Stronger Than Feelings.