surprisingly sweet

". . . sweetened dried cranberries are a surprisingly sweet snack . . ."
back of a Craisins bag, April 2006

Scientists at Nasa, as well as researchers at MIT in seperate experiments, injected glasses of water with sodium choride. Even with different sodium-chloride-to-water ratios, each experiment resulted in a salty taste. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University also experimented with adding sodium chloride and lemons juice to vodka, noting that, while the vodka retained its original flavor, there were noticable salty and sour flavors as well.

Inspired by this, corporations are also experimenting on their own. Ocean Spray experimentee with sugar and dried cranberries—the results: sugar makes things taste sweeter. Other companies are scrambling to infuse other items with sugar, including coffee, cole slaw, spaghetti, eggs, and sea water. This discovery has amazed other food companies and consumers alike. That something with sugar added could actually taste sweeter than before may lead to advances in production of foodstuffs. Companies speak of adding sugar to such products as cereals and diet sodas.

In other experiments by an independant research firm, lab mice responded better to food coated in sugar than to food that had not been. In a controversial experiment using children, the same research firm were able to determine that children as old as five prefer fruit coated in sugar over un-sugar-coated fruit. In the experiment on children, the fruit was limited to apples and bananas only; further experiments are still needed to see if sugar affects all fruit. Several candy companies are planning creating products that are pure sugar or forms of sugar, molded into fun shapes such as worms and small bears.