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Castoreum IS Real Food

beaverbutt

So, while enjoying my latest post-long-run treat from the Starbuck’s Secret Menu, I heard a commercial/news commentary about a mysterious ingredient called Castoreum that is used in vanilla, strawberry and RASPBERRY flavoring. The news piece referenced the origin of this ingredient…anal sacs from a beaver. I laughed while holding my giant raspberry white chocolate mocha. There is no way that is true.

I even went to THE definitive resource for blowing apart urban legends.

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And I gently put my cup down.

I don’t want to know how many permanent wrinkles my forehead collected while frantically researching this. I kept reading all about the specific areas of a beaver this stuff originates. Then I wondered how in the world PETA would let this happen since I would assume there are only a couple of ways to GET THIS STUFF FROM THE ASS OF A BEAVER!!!

Thankfully, while it IS a true statement that castoreum comes from a beaver and the FDA states this is safe for humans (go down the rabbit hole of wondering HOW they know this…who signed up for that testing experiment?), this ingredient is not very common because it’s hard to hold a beaver still while someone milks their ass gland. I’m saying this with a straight face, I promise.

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All silliness and absolute horrific nightmares aside, this stuff is well..natural and it does qualify as real food.

Nobody said all real food is appetizing. I’m going to bleach my brain now.

Anybody else know of another gross source of natural flavoring?