Frappuccinos Minus Bugs

The vegan community can rejoice today. Starbucks will no longer use cochineal (koch-i-neel) extract in their Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino® and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. Other products such Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Mini Doughnut with pink icing, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie will continue to be produced with the ingredient until June of this year.

The tip-off that lead to an online post (hosted by the website thisdishisvegetarian.com) was given last month by a barista working at a midwest Starbucks. A petition was posted on change.org and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) also joined the fray to show their support. All aforementioned parties later applauded the policy change today on their respective blogs.

Fleeting as some stories are, time will be the final judge on whether this story has any lasting impression on consumers. Approved by the FDA, cochineal has a long and illustrious history. With a positive nod toward social responsibility, Starbucks is one of the few (at least in this case) to fulfill customer demands. Found in many foods, cosmetics and fabrics, cochineal has been linked to causing allergic reactions and accentuating hyperactivity in children sensitive to it. Because of its pervasiveness, it will once again be up to the consumer to scrutinize packages and pressure manufacturers to leave the bugs out.

For those of you who feel squeamish at the possibility of ingesting these critters, check the ingredients label for “carminic acid”, “colored with carmine”, or “cochineal extract”. Any foodstuff that has a viabrant red hue is worth checking out!

Color and Design

Not a book for light reading, Color and Design will satisfy any design practitioner, or scholar seeking to gain a more expanded view of how humans respond to color. Editors Marilyn DeLong and Barbara have curated a selection of essays which are organized into subjects ranging from color psychology to marketing and trend influences. Since these are essays, the reader should not expect this book to offer a cultural analysis of primary/secondary colors nor an explanation of basic color theory. What the text does offer is specific examinations on various topics that center around sociological approach of how color is assimilated within a culture, its art, folklore and consumerism. Outwardly this can seem to be a real bore. I did however find a pearl or two that can potentially be assigned as required reading for my students. For example in Part III: Markets and Trends , I found an informative essay by Alex Bitterman ( Color the World: Identifying Color Trends in Contemporary Ci...

History: What’s in a Name?

There are many color dualities—and orange is no exception. Used as both a noun and adjective, no English word exists to serve as a true rhyme for orange. It is the only color of the spectrum whose name was taken from a fruit, the well-known orange ( citrus sinensis ). Coming from a evergreen tree, oranges are among the most grown fruit in the world, and because the tree is ever bearing, the color orange became associated with fruitfulness. Having passed through many languages, the word initially got its start from the Dravidian root for ‘fragrant’. It was then interpreted in Sanskrit, and then made its way among Persian , Armenian , Arabic, Latin, Italian, Old French dialects before making its first appearance in English in the 14th century. Before 1542 “yellow-red” ( geoluhread) was the word used to describe the color before the fruit and color were synonymous. The etiology for the first place named Orange may be estranged from the word, but is no less symbolic in meani...

Another Pinboard to Follow

Having resisted Pinterest for about a year now, I finally dipped my toes into the virtual pool of pinboards. My apprehension was truly misdirected and I've come to find that the concept of organizing visual images/links onto a virtual board has become a great teaching tool. After covering the typical graphic design topics such as typography, and history it was a natural move to include color among the related topics. So here is a link to my All Color Matters pinboard .

All Color Matters

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