Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Uh -- it's about the wood in my lemonade...
Hey Matt Man:
When I'm out working in my wood shop, there are certain materials that need special handling. Things like glycerol ester of wood rosin just seem to scream out "avoid breathing fumes," "wear protective gloves." Then when I'm done with my project, I sit back and take a long cool drink of Minute Maid lemonade and to my horror see glycerol ester of wood rosin listed in the ingredients, right after the modified corn starch! What the heck is glycerol ester of wood rosin, and what is it doing in my lemonade?
-- Tim, Poway
We checked Grandma Alice's lemonade recipe, but it didn't include corn or trees, so I guess this demands an inquiry. Glycerol ester of wood rosin is sometimes listed as ester gum, though that doesn't make it sound much tastier. In fact, Grandma claims she went to high school with somebody named Ester Gum. Anyway, whatever you call it, the stuff is a (food-grade) rosin byproduct of wood pulp processing included in most citrus-flavored drinks. It is a solvent that keeps citrus oil suspended in water and gives it the proper density. We never did find out what "proper" means, exactly. Lemons, water, and sugar seem proper to us, but the Minute Maid is richer than we are, so obviously we're missing something.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Uh -- it's about the wood in my lemonade...
Uh -- it's about the wood in my lemonade...
Hey Matt Man:
When I'm out working in my wood shop, there are certain materials that need special handling. Things like glycerol ester of wood rosin just seem to scream out "avoid breathing fumes," "wear protective gloves." Then when I'm done with my project, I sit back and take a long cool drink of Minute Maid lemonade and to my horror see glycerol ester of wood rosin listed in the ingredients, right after the modified corn starch! What the heck is glycerol ester of wood rosin, and what is it doing in my lemonade?
-- Tim, Poway
We checked Grandma Alice's lemonade recipe, but it didn't include corn or trees, so I guess this demands an inquiry. Glycerol ester of wood rosin is sometimes listed as ester gum, though that doesn't make it sound much tastier. In fact, Grandma claims she went to high school with somebody named Ester Gum. Anyway, whatever you call it, the stuff is a (food-grade) rosin byproduct of wood pulp processing included in most citrus-flavored drinks. It is a solvent that keeps citrus oil suspended in water and gives it the proper density. We never did find out what "proper" means, exactly. Lemons, water, and sugar seem proper to us, but the Minute Maid is richer than we are, so obviously we're missing something.
Comments