Natural v/s Artificial Flavoring?

In China, people simply do not accept teas that are flavored with sources other than real flowers, or real fruits. The topic of natural v/s synthetic is always interesting. Heavy metals and arsenic are natural, but certainly are not good for one’s health. It’s simplistic to assume that natural=healthy.

That being said, it’s important to be aware of what is in your food, drink, water, and other consumables. Preferring natural flavors may be a value that is important to you, and thus be something to strive for. However, doing it because of the false dichotomy of natural=healthy and synthetic=unhealthy doesn’t have a good basis of evidence. Also important to consider is that the chemical composition of many flavors, whether natural or synthetic, would be the same.

Natural and artificial flavors are much more alike than most people realize. When you say “natural flavors” people somehow assume that means some took a cherry and reduced it to it’s the smallest element, and whallah-natural cherry flavor. The truth of the matter is that each fruit, vegetable, herb, botanical and whatever else is used to break down these substances, into a myriad of tiny chemicals which contribute to a given item’s flavor profile. When it is determined which chemicals compose a given flavor profile, they can find those chemicals in various other sources. Cherry flavor may be comprised largely of a chemical that is present in cherries, but much more prevalent and/or more easily extracted from rhubarb. So, your natural cherry flavor may end up having more rhubarb than celery in it. The individuals who create these natural flavors are working with basic building blocks that they have discovered in specific sources. I would venture to guess that most of the flavor houses don’t know and probably don’t care where a given compound comes from. They just know that x+y+z=cherry, and they purchase x, y, and z from companies that specialize in extracting them from vegetable, fruit, or spice material. The difference between natural and artificial flavors is that with the artificial flavors, someone actually had a natural compound and said, “I wonder how the flavor would change if I changed this part of the chemical, or merged it with this, or removed that… They then created something brand new. But in either case, the flavors are really combinations of tiny chemical elements, and a lot more chemistry than anything else. So, for an individual to say, “I would rather consume natural over artificial flavors,” you would have to have some pretty strong misgivings about the artificially created compounds. Still, it’s fine if you prefer natural to artificial, just don’t kid yourself into thinking that your natural blueberry flavor was created by someone who painstakingly distilled whole blueberries into some magic potion. It probably has chemicals extracted from grape and sandalwood.

Teas are very susceptible to aromas. The amount of flavoring needed to flavor tea is miniscule—about 3% or not quite one gram per ounce. A large portion of that is ethyl alcohol, which is used as a carrying agent (as it evaporates, the flavor is carried through the tea on the wings of the evaporating alcohol). The flavor and the alcohol are water-soluble, so water is used to combine the two. In all, once the alcohol and water evaporate, you’re probably looking at something like .5% flavoring. It’s like getting a speck of dirt in your sandwich.

Source: www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-difference-be-2002-07-29/

Source: www.flavorfacts.org/natural-vs-artificial-what-is-the-difference/