La Croixs Natural Flavors Were Not a Mystery. Odds are pretty good that you have consumed a food or beverage item in the past 2. In fact, theres a non zero chance you are ingesting one right now. The term is a catch all for an enormous number of different ingredients, but the ambiguity of the label does not make any one processed food or drink product an unsolvable enigma. Unless, apparently, the food product in question is La Croix, the extremely normal, Midwestern brand of flavored sparkling water which has become an annoyingly trendy status symbol and lifestyle brand. Earlier this week, a Wall Street Journal article supposedly cracked the brands code and revealed what its natural flavors are, while extensively quoting people who seem to have walked out of a Harry Potter themed La Croix ad. La Croix would only tell the paper its natural flavoring is essence and that essence is FEELINGS and Sensory Effects Well get to what essence actually is in a second, but heres what its customers think it is. Essence is, like, a combination of hint and aftertaste, Antony Merkel, a 3. Los Angeles resident who said he drinks 1. La Croix a day, breathlessly told the Journal. You definitely recognize the flavors that are there, but it doesnt feel like youre drinking a product of that, Merkel continued. Its not a grapefruit juice, or something of a grapefruit. Its a little intangible, which is kind of the appeal. I have no idea what it is. Essence is fairies in a warehouse somewhere dancing with fruits, and suddenly you have this amazing drink, 3. Atlanta social media manager Miranda Wicker added. Big Roll Sod Installer For Sale On Craigslist more. There are just some things we dont need to know. Because La Croix is the Game of Thrones of non alcoholic beverages, the story was immediately picked up by a number ofother outlets. But again, theres no mystery here, just marketing. Natural flavoring is any sort of chemical originally extracted or distilled from a natural sourcerather than artificially synthesizedto create a concentrate that is then used in the manufacturing of a food or drink. Sometimes, theyre mixed with other additives, some of which are synthetic, before being added to food and drink. Essence in this context is just a catchy term for essential oil, the concentrated form of the chemicals which give a plant its fragrance. Some essential oils are useful in medicine as antiseptics or anesthetics, while others are often used in industrial processes, cosmetics and hygienic products. Because theyre highly concentrated, theyre an invaluable part of the food industry Essential oils can be distilled and packaged wherever it is logistically easiest and sold off for use in a huge variety of products. So theres your natural flavoring The magical essence behind La Croix is nothing more than a marketing buzzword to describe the same manufacturing processes behind almost all processed foodstuffs. It is fruit skins and rinds that have been crushed up and heated until the mix releases its essential oils. Luke Plunkett. Luke Plunkett is a Contributing Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs. Also, this information was freely available on La Croixs website the whole time. Buzzfeed, Wall Street Journal. You have not yet voted on this site If you have already visited the site, please help us classify the good from the bad by voting on this site. Oct 22, 2017 South Park The Fractured But Whole Free Full Game Download Role Playing Oct 22, 2017 ELEX Free. The Perfect Game Of Thrones Game Is A PC Mod. Forget RPGs, action games or even a broken if decent adventure series. The perfect Game of Thrones video game is a mod for a 2. PC. When I first reviewed Crusader Kings II in 2. I called it one of the most challenging,Read more Read. I mentioned in my review of Crusader Kings II a few years back that the systems put in place by developers Paradox seemed ideally suited to George R R Martins fantasy universe. Download Game World Of Goo Full Cracked ProgramsWhile there are larger things going on like Kingdoms falling and wars being fought, CKII places just as much importance on the more personal side of feudal rule marriage, politics, alliances and back stabbing. Which just so happens to b the same blending of the big and small picture that that makes Go. T that much more appealing to a wider audience than your standard fantasy tale. I was playing as the King of England. I ruled for over thirty years, sometimes a tyrant, otherRead more Read. So it was only a matter of time before the two were brought together. A Game Of Thrones is a total conversion mod for Crusader Kings II that replaces the games map, factions, characters and even some systems with those of George R R Martins fantasy universe. Beginning at various points in the history of Westeros players can choose from a few key starting points, CKII Go. T lets you play as any title holder in Westeros. And I do mean any. The mod team has certainly done their research, as going beyond the big names like Aerys, Robert and Ned Stark are hundreds of lesser lords and officials, some featuring as characters in the booksTV show, others only mentioned briefly or in passing. What does this mean Everything I said about the main game in my review applies here, only everything I loved about CKII is now magnified, because Im not playing as some random English Duke, I can play as Ned Stark. Walder Frey is there, and he has 1. Even The Wall and the Nights Watch are there. Originally released in 2. Westeros itself, the mod has since grown to include all the auxiliary information contained in the World of Ice Fire guide books, and more impressively it also now includes Essos as well. There are scenarios basically custom starting points to kick off from as well, ranging from the forging of the Seven Kingdoms themselves through to the events of A Feast For Crows. Honestly, its worth a download just to use it as an interactive Game of Thrones encyclopaedia, clicking through the family trees and lineages and histories not only learning about the world, but admiring the amount of work thats gone into this mod. In terms of what it adds or changes to the vanilla CKII, theres nothing too different. Theres a new war system in place to better handle the nature of the conflict since its one giant civil conflict, a new assassination system and the incorporation of knights into the character system. Aside from that, and some welcome and extensive re skinning of CKIIs graphics, things play mostly the same as they do in the standard game. Some added, extra events winter is coming, prisoners demanding trial by combat are a nice touch. Its easy. Because its the only game on this list thats about sex and politics. Read more Read. If youre a strategy game veteran, youll have no problems picking this up and enjoying it. Those who are big Go. T fans but who havent played a game like Crusader Kings II, though, dont panic it may look complex, but its surprisingly easy to get a handle on, and you can have enjoyable games only knowing the very basics of its structure. Later playthroughs, where you can dig a little deeper, will only get better. To help you out getting started, heres a great tutorial video made by Rojiru You can download the mod here. Note that, being a mod, youll need a copy of Crusader Kings II first, which you can get here. This article was originally published in May 2.