Kelsey Ribblett

Marlen Harrison

English 101-3

February 3, 2008

Taste

            Taste is our most mysterious yet blatantly direct sense. Everything edible, and some things that aren’t have taste. Food is something all bodies must be fueled by, so taste is nature’s way of making something that is essential enjoyable. How boring it would be to eat if our food didn’t have taste. People would certainly not be overweight. Why is it that in order to describe taste we must compare taste to that of something else? We use similes to compare and describe taste, saying, “It tastes like…” instead of just naming the taste. Everyone has a taste for different kinds of food, and most people choose favorite foods based on the way they taste.

            In class on Friday, I found myself with a very unfamiliar taste in my mouth. While I didn’t know it at the time because I had never tried one before, it was a jelly-like candy coated with sugar, called an Orange Slice. It reminded me of something I would have loved to eat when I was a little kid. I was surprised to discover that these little orange candies have been around for decades and have a large fan base. Dan, an Orange Slice fan from Oregon says, “Even today when my grandchildren visit we love sitting around putting Orange Slices in our mouths and beaming at each other with bright orange smiles.” Another Orange Slice admirer, Tamara from Florida says, “I didn’t think something so small as candy could bring so much joy.” (Old Time Candy) I am now proud to say that I have jumped on the bandwagon of Orange Slice enthusiasts, and would like to share my very first experience with this delectable candy.

The first thing to hit my tongue was the gritty outside layer of the food. The texture of the first layer felt like I left my mouth open on the beach as the salty breeze floated by, and airborne particles of grimy sand planted themselves there. The taste of the outer layer was so sweet and sugary it was almost sour enough to make me pucker my lips.

As I bit down, my teeth sunk slowly through the thick candy as a warm juicy burst of flavor erupted to fill every corner of my mouth, like a long tumbling wave releasing its energy as it finally comes crashing down on the unsuspecting shore. I could taste the sun in the balmy orange flavor of the candy. It was as if I was at a seaside carnival, and the ripest, juiciest oranges in the world replaced the colorful balls I landed in after coming off the slide. The texture was as heavy and thick as the humid evening air on the coast, but it was also smooth and wet as the tops of the jellyfish that make a quick and subtle appearance on the crest of each wave, and then fade suddenly back into the vast shadows of the sea, never again to be seen by the same set of eyes.

The candy stuck itself in the most awkward spaces in my mouth, my tongue unable to rescue it, like the sand that buries itself in the most inappropriate spaces of my bikini, after a nice swim in the warm ocean water. Neither the candy suck in my mouth or the sand stuck in my bikini can be removed politely in public. As the final bites of the candy are chewed and swallowed, it’s as if I am packing my belongs to depart the bliss of paradise and return to the drabness of every day live. The after taste is bitter sweet like the road trip home. Nostalgia sets in as I think about the amazing experience my mouth just had, like the days after a vacation when I look through the pictures and am distressed to realize I can’t be teleported back to the feelings and tastes of ecstasy provided by a vacation just the same as the Orange Slice candy

Works Cited

“Orange Slice Memories.” Old Time Candy Company. LaGrange, OH (2000-2008)

            http://www.oldtimecandy.com/memories/orange-slices-memories.htm