While I was making the custom lollipops for the LICK art opening, something went seriously wrong with one of the lollipop colors. The lollipops in question were supposed to be orange-flavored and a sparkly-flesh color (Caucasian flesh, to be specific). Unfortunately, they turned out disappointingly orange, like the color you might turn with a too-aggressive application of self-tanner or something.
After playing a few rounds of Food Science Detective back at home, I realized that part of the problem was that during the design iterations, I’d never actually made a version that combined the color and flavor ingredients that Catherine, our client, had requested. I’d made test versions of the color, and test versions of the flavor, but never together in the same batch.
It turned out that the orange flavor and the citric acid that I added to heighten the flavor were affecting the colors I was using.
From now on, when working on custom projects, I will always remember to make a final test batch that uses all the correct ingredients before proceeding to the professional kitchen!
