Bug juice

 

_

I'm trying to tag that odd, funky smell of Irresistables Cranberry-Raspberry juice.

 

It took a full bottle, and a week.

 

"Have you tried the 'fruit' juice that smells like feet?" I ask friends.

 

Think socks. Winter toes. Breakfast.

 

A break-thru in food science.

 

I check the diet drink label for a clue to how a fruit juice can smell like feet.

 

Nothing suspect on the ingredients list til you get to the last one:  cochineal.

 

Kinda familiar. I Google.

 

Cochineal (additive number 120) or carmine dye is a food coloring that is regularly used in foods such as candies, ketchup, soft drinks and anything that manufacturers think should look red – even canned cherries! Cochineal is made from crushed female insects found naturally living on cactus plants in South America.

Not a beetle, it is a true bug.

 

 

 

My search for the smell continues.

 

But you remember in kid-hood, 

meals came with big jugs 

of bright red Kool-Aid wannabee?

 

And the older kids called it "Bug Juice?"

 

 How did they know?