Solar Eclipse
On Tuesday, April 8th, we joined the millions of other people who went out to witness the total solar eclipse. We ended up driving into Northern Vermont in the morning, and were lucky enough to catch clear skies.
This was the second total eclipse that I witnessed, and it was just as tremendous as the first. The moment of totality had all of us cheering in excitement, and staring in awe up at the sky.
Part of what makes this such a spectacular moment, is how uniquely magical it feels. Because the moon orbits on a different plane from the Sun and the Earth, it is only rarely in perfect alignment – roughly every 18 months on average. Perhaps most special of all, is the perfect size alignment. The Sun is roughly 400 times the diameter of the moon, but also happens to be roughly 400 times farther away from us. Because of this, the moon and the Sun appear in our sky as almost the exact same size. What a tremendously lucky coincidence!
Solar Eclipse Specials
Surrounding the eclipse, we’ve seen a lot of different products with eclipse-inspired flavors. One that we tried ourselves was Sonic’s “Blackout Slush Float”. Theirs was a black slushie, flavored cotton candy and dragon fruit, and topped with a white ice cream and galaxy inspired sprinkles.
A lot of local restaurants and coffee shops had their own take on specials to celebrate the eclipse as well. From coffees and other beverages, to pastries and popcorn, there were countless versions of solar eclipse flavors. To join in the fun, we decided to make our version of a flavor inspired by the eclipse – and since we love outer space, we made a few others too!
Flavors of Outer Space
Solar eclipse – We were a bit indecisive about this flavor. Should we capture the flavors of the moon and the sun, and combine into one? Or create something that better represents the magic of that moment of totality? Ultimately, we settled on a flavor to capture that ephemeral moment, of the white glow of our sun shining out from behind the darkened moon. To represent this, we created an application instead of a flavor – the “cold” hot coffee. This allows us to simultaneously experience the heat from a fresh cup of coffee (the sun), with the coldness of an ice cube (the moon). We topped it off with a coconut marshmallow flavored foam, to portray that distinct white glow. These flavors and experiences all join together to create something distinctly new, apart from its independent pieces.
Black hole – For one of my favorite objects in space, this flavor needed to be dark and heavy. With a gravitational pull at its center so strong that even light can’t escape, all matter is stretched and squeezed into its center. To represent that elongation, we added cinnamon sticks. For the gravitational pull, we chose coffee, because what pulls you in more than the need for your morning cup? And finally, we rounded it out with a chocolate note, to make it a little darker. Thus created our black hole cinnamon mocha.
Supernova – One of the hottest objects (events) in the universe, this explosion marks the end of a star’s life. These can briefly outshine entire galaxies, and some in history were even visible during the day! However, as 90’s kids, whenever we hear the term “super nova”, we start singing the classic DCOM song “Supernova Girl“. This song only reinforced Melissa’s childhood dream of being an astronaut, and so we had to honor it here! As a result, our take on a Supernova is a fruit punch flavor, with added notes of blueberries and dragonfruit to represent Zenon herself.
Moon walk – a reimagined lemon sorbet. For this flavor, we wanted something that gave us a bounce. Here, the fresh, tart citrus flavors will have your tastebuds jumping. Then, tempered by sweet, airy vanilla cream, you’ll be bouncing in zero gravity.
Nebula – with notes of raspberry, orange, and cotton candy, this flavor evokes images of those colorful, wispy space clouds. Interestingly, in 2009 astronomers actually identified ethyl formate in the center of a dust cloud in the Milky Way. This chemical gives raspberries their flavor (and smells a bit like rum)!
Ready to create your own space-inspired product? Contact us today for a sample, or to request your own take on outer space! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
