Yellowstone – Holographic Huckleberries
While we often get ideas for flavors on our travels and through our everyday experiences, one of the easiest and most exciting sources of inspiration comes from nature. So many of our senses are activated when we spend time outside. From visually resplendent colors to those unique, blended scents carried on a breeze. But one of my favorite ways to celebrate a new adventure, or to bring myself back to one of my favorite places, is through flavors. So we’re starting a new blog series to highlight flavors inspired by our national parks. Most will be our own here in states, but some international parks will eventually be featured as well. To kick off the series, I’m focusing on Yellowstone, our very first national park. Yellowstone can be remembered in part through its huckleberries.
The First National Park
Established in 1872, Yellowstone helped pave the way for millions of acres of land to be protected by the National Park Service. It is important to note that many indigenous tribes lived in and with this land for thousands of years before its official establishment, which play a critical role in its history. You can learn more about this history here and here.
Yellowstone is in part so fascinating and beautiful because it is itself a caldera, sitting atop a super volcano. Its first major eruption occurred 2.1 million years ago, and is one of the largest known volcanic eruptions in history. This tremendous volcanic system creates the many geysers and hot springs that Yellowstone is so well known for.
Geysers and Hot Springs
One of the most recognizable locations at Yellowstone NP is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest and arguably most incredible hot spring in the park. It is created from hot water emerging through cracks in the Earth’s surface, which flow here unobstructed and continuously, cooling as it flows further out, until it once more falls back through the surface.
The Grand Prismatic Spring is 370 feet across, and gets its rainbow colors mostly from heat-loving bacteria (more scientifically known as thermophiles). Water at the very center of the spring can reach 189 degrees F, which is still too hot for most life – since there are so little organisms there, we see a clear, deep blue color from the scattering of blue wavelengths. As you travel further from the center, it begins cooling in concentric circles, with each “ring” lending a distinct temperature – and therefore, a distinct set of bacteria that can live and thrive there. This gives us that beautiful range from deep blue in the center, through to green, yellow, orange, and red.
Flavors of the park
When you venture into other parts of the park, the landscape varies immensely. Countless waterfalls and lakes, acres of forest, towering mountains, and swaths of geothermal pools and geysers create a breathtaking experience that inspires awe with every new experience. And nestled amongst these many areas are more than 1,300 species of plants.
I most distinctly remember all these tall, thin pine trees that seemed to poke out all over the ground – and which I now know are called Lodegpole Pine trees. But I also remember having a huckleberry dessert in the lodge café, and it was the first time I had ever had them (we went in the summer when I was 12 years old).
Huckleberries
Huckleberries grow on bushes fairly high in the mountains, and resemble blueberries. They’re tart, sweet, and bursting with flavor.
So, to honor Yellowstone, we decided to combine two things that make us think of the park – huckleberries, and the Grand Prismatic Springs! This led us to create these holographic chocolates, flavored with our natural huckleberry flavor. The colors on the chocolate come from the way it hardens. We tempered the flavored chocolate, and cooled it onto a refractory sheet. This results is tiny little grooves that light is able to refract off of, creating a beautiful, iridescent rainbow display.
Contact us here to ask for a sample today! You can try our huckleberry flavor as both a powder and a liquid, and use it in a wide range of applications. Or, send us an email to talk about some of your favorite flavors of Yellowstone, or which park you’d like us to highlight next! Flavors inspired by nature are some of our favorites, and we always enjoy creating something new.
