From: MSN
If there is indeed a sucker born every minute, that would be just fine with Jason Darling.
Darling is the owner of Lollyphile, an Austin, Texas-based candy company that has just introduced its newest lollipop flavor: breast milk.
The lollipops are meant to mimic the taste of mothers’ breast milk, though they don’t actually contain any breast milk ingredients. Darling told MSN News he got the idea for the new flavor thusly:
“When playing with my friends’ babies, I realized that I couldn’t really calm them down when they were crying. But two seconds of breast-feeding and they were instantly contented! It made me wonder what this amazing taste could be,” he said by email.
‘RICH & SWEET’
The company said it went directly to the source in an effort to recreate the flavor.
“Several of my friends are breast-feeding, so I asked them all if I could try it out. All breast milk tastes different! I had no idea,” Darling told MSN. “My partner, Maria Russo, and I tried them all. It’s rich & sweet, with notes of almond and even cinnamon!”
The ingredients are “basically just sugar and flavor,” Darling said.
Breast milk joins the list of other quirky flavors of lollipops sold by Lollyphile, which includes absinthe, chocolate bacon, chai tea, Irish cream and wasabi ginger.
The target audience is adults, and the lollipops are only available through the company’s online store. At $10 for a pack of four lollipops, kids probably couldn’t afford them anyway.
NICHE MARKET?
Will the breast milk flavor take off?
Only time will tell, said Bernard Pacyniak, editor in chief of Candy Industry, a trade magazine covering the global confectionery industry.
“Obviously, the company has got a bit of an edge to it. I’m not sure if breast milk will be a popular flavor. (But) the audience for confections is very broad so there might be a niche for that,” Pacyniak told MSN News.
“I think it’s funny that people would get so grossed out by eating something that came out of a human, but don’t think twice about eating something that came out of a cow,” one man wrote on Lollyphile’s Facebook page.
Darling said the company has sold “several thousand dollars’ worth” of the new lollipops since they were introduced on Monday. He said he is exploring retail distribution possibilities.
Pacyniak, for one, is itching to try the new flavor.
“I hope to get some samples. It’s been a while since I’ve had some breast milk, to be honest,” he deadpanned.
