What Are Natural Flavors?
From the get-go, one of our brand pillars has been no BS additives. We’re all about real food, high-quality ingredients, and feeling good about the way we’re nourishing our bodies from the inside out. That said, we’re also passionate about bringing the FUN back to eating and cultivating a relationship with food that is JOYFUL.
Our core flavors have always (and will always be!) refined-sugar and natural flavor-free. But, when we were experimenting with different cookie dough recipes, it felt like something was missing. We heard your feedback from cookie dough 1.0: wanting a flavor that was nostalgic, buttery, and tasted just like the Toll House you inhaled as a kid. So we tried adding a natural cookie dough flavor (of course, allergen-free, vegan, and organic-compliant) to the mix - and it was INSANE (in the best way possible) with less than .25g per jar. We knew we had found our magic ingredient.
This felt important for a couple reasons. One, it created the true cookie dough flavor you had been begging for 🥵🔥 Two, as many of you know, I started this company out of my eating disorder recovery. For so long, I was not in a healthy place with food because I was so obsessive about every little ingredient. A huge part of my healing journey was eating the foods that I had been afraid of for so long. By slowly adding in my fear foods, I was able to get to this place where I didn’t see food as “good” or “bad” and this mindset shift really helped me find a balanced, beautiful relationship with it.
So what are natural flavors, really? There’s a ton of fear mongering around them, so let’s cut right to the chase. Natural flavors are created from anything that can be eaten - in our case, plants - they’re derived from things naturally occurring on earth (like fruits, herbs, veggies, and roots). Their main job is to make food taste good, not to provide any sort of nutritional value, which is why we also load up on the good stuff (fiber, healthy fats, etc.) to provide you with a nutrient-dense *and* delicious product. Because the natural flavor we use is organic-compliant, it means that it’s heavily regulated and can’t contain a lot of the icky stuff we wouldn’t want to be putting into our bodies (like synthetic solvents, GMOs, or artificial preservatives). If you’re curious about learning the real science behind natural flavors and why they’ve been demonized in the health and wellness space, highly recommend checking out @foodsciencebabe - knowledge is power, baby!!
P.s. we understand that some of you can’t eat natural flavors for health or allergy reasons, so for our food allergy queens - want to reassure you that our core flavors will remain unchanged and something you can always count on. We got you, boo ❤️
And if you haven't gotten a chance to try out cookie dough 2.0, check it out here!
Sources:
https://www.agdaily.com/insights/facts-fallacies-regarding-artificial-flavors-natural-flavors-spices/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/well/eat/are-natural-flavors-really-natural.html
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/quackery/food-babe-has-no-idea-how-physiology-works