Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-05
Stimulating Smell.
BY Frederic J. HaskIn.


long and gurglinply, you may think that
many patient little strawberries grew UP
just TO give you such treat, but you are
mistaken. Never q strawberry went into
the making Of your refreshing draught.
Practically oil you are getting is some
colored soda water and n smell
This is dishcartenIng thought in n
world where life seems To be just one long
shattcring Of illusions, 80 we hasten 10
add that although your pop has no re-
lation 10 the succulent strawberry IL is
nevertheless quite pure and harmless
drink, quite worthy 70 quench the care
fully guarded American thirst. In fact, IL
ls much purer than If il were Favored with
real strawberries, which IL why IL isn't, il
you follow us.
Now that prohibition has made soft
drinks 50 interesting to all Of ug, and 30
profitable to some Of us, a scientific
treatise upon the subject will not be out
OF place. You perhaps did not realize
that your soda consisted Of more than
carbonated water and favoring. but il
does. Science. psychology and even art
90 into the making Of this refreshing
beverage, and the most important Of these
is psychology.
Mr. D. w. Hutchinson, manufac-
turer OF soda water favors and bottling
supplies, is an authority upon the subject
as he practically grew up in the soda pop
business heavenly boyhood IL boys
tastes in those days were the same as
they are now. II is no wonder that he
repays this eferyescent and stimulating
element OF his youth with lifelong in
| terest.
| THE EARLY SOFT DRINKS.
Mr.. Hutchinson's father, William II.
Hutchinson, was one Of the first bottlers
| Of soft drinks in this country. Way back
| In lS49 he started small beer business
| here, (the small" modifes the beer and
not the business, small beer being another
name for root beer, birch beer, and 50
| FORTH. He made his beverages Of sugar,
| herbs, yeast, and other things and put
/ them in stone bottles. These were the
| ''soft drinks" Of our forefathers, and
according TO Mr.. Hutchinson they we're
cloudy and unpleasing to look upon,
although good to drink, and innocuous
| enough to suit a certain Nebraskan.
When the machinery for bottlinR came
into being, he drifted into the soda water
business and his enterprise grew up with
the great American thirst. But the way
Of the early bother was not all easy, in
spite Of the great demand for his wares.
His chief difficulty was in making his
soda water clear and sparkling 50 that
il would attract the cautious buyer, who
is ever on the lookout for signs Of i'm
purity. This is where the science. psy-
chology and art, aforementioned, enter
into the story.
The bOttlers soon discovered that II
was impossible 70 flavor their drinks with
fiavors made from natural fruits The
favors made from fruit contain pectin.
albumen and other substances which tend
10 separate and make little stringy par
ticles IN the soda water after II has been
bottled for a few davs This gives the
drink q cloudy, unpleasant look and
arouses the suspicious Of the cautious
drinker who, Of course, thinks that the
particles are deadly germs Then, too,
fruits such as the apple, strawberry.
cherry and peach do not lend themselves
to use in bottled goods. Their favor is too
delicate TO be concentrated in soluble
form with the intensity necessary. OF
course where there an essential oil in
the fruit, as N the case Of the lemon.
orange, or lime, this oil Is used Other
wise the fruit hayors OF soda water have
not quite the close relation 70 Mother
Nature, the rains and winds OF heav en-
and the sunkissed cheeks OF apples and
cherries, that the ecstatIc ad-wrlter has
led US TO believe they have.
But when the bottlers realized that pure
fruit havors could not be made satisfac-
torily, nothing daunted they decided 70
make imitation hsvors that would be
satisfactory. Mr. Hutchinson, and others
like him, knowing that the sense Of smell
Is so closely related to the sense OF taste
that they are nearly one, concentrated
upon the odors of the favoFs They
analyzed the real fruits, duplicated their
chemical parts es nearly az possible, and
made extracts TO stimulate them in taste
and especially in smell
Thus il Is that when YOU open your
bottle OF strawberry pop your nostrils are
assailed by the refreshing odor Of the ripe
fruit, you drink of the pleasantly tingling
fluid, and 60 away much refreshed, think
ing you have just imbIbed some soda
water favored with strawberry Juice.
What you have had was a cleverly-imi-
tated strawberry smell and drink Of
sweetened soda water. OF course there is
some taste of the fruit, too, but not much.
TEST FOR THE TASTE.
Try this test sometime and you viii
realize how little. Wait until you have
such a severe cold that YOU can't smell
at all and We politely hope that you will
have TO wait long time). then blind
fold yourself and have someone give you
a bottle of pop and see if you cen giess
the flavor from the taste. You viii have
an unusually keen sense of taste If YOU
can, accordingfto MIR Hutchinson he
declines, however, to put all the blame /
for this form Of deception upon the bet T
tiers. Nature herself goes in for s little
Of the same kind Of fcoling. ToL can Try I
the same blindfold test with an apple and +
piece of raw potato, and have hard 7
time telling which was which.
Furthermore, although you are getting
an atiicially colored and favored drink,
you are getting an absolutely pure one
Only the purest water, the best sugar and .
flavoring, put up in bottles that are
chemically clean win give that clear,
sparkling appearance which most soda 4
pop has. One sure way of protecting your
self from all impurities IN the beverage
is to refuse to drink any soda water which
has a cloudy appearance in the bottle
This rule applies only TO bottled soda as
that which is served at fountains with
fresh crushed fruits and ice cream is,
clouded.
THE COLOR MEANS NOTHING.
The coloring matter in soda pop has
nothing to do with its flavor 1t is Just
put in to make it look pretty and to
appeal To your artistic sense at the same
time that your other senses are being
harmlessly bamboozled 1t is made OF
burnt sugar in the case of amber and /
brown drinks such as ginger ale and root