One of the reasons that my family purchases natural foods is because we can avoid the food dyes that are found in so many processed products. People used to tease me because I even bought organic lollipops on Amazon for Halloween. Once those people tried the suckers, though, they agreed that they tasted incredible. Avoiding artificial flavors and dyes takes effort these days. It’s especially hard to find baking goods that don’t contain those chemical additives. For example, have you ever tried to find a pink frosting for cake that didn’t have a disclosure on the label, explaining that it contained artificial colors and flavors? It’s disheartening for a busy mom to have to choose between spending lots of time making something from scratch, or feeding her kids a lot of chemical dyes. When I received Nature’s Flavors Natural Colors, lots of ideas ran through my mind about ways we could use these.
I received the Rainbow Pack from Nature’s Flavors. The pack arrived in 100% recycled packaging and contained 5 colors, one each of Natural Cherry Red, Natural Blue, Natural Honeydew Green, Natural Yellow and Natural Pumpkin. These natural food colorings are vegan, gluten free and chemical free so I don’t have to worry about a thing except how to mix them to create the perfect shade! We also found that they don’t add much flavor to the finished product. In the recipe for colored sugar below, we used the blueberry shade. My daughter said she thought she tasted blueberry, but it could just be from her imagination. There does seem to be a bit of a scent to them, but it’s not very strong.
We decided to try the blue to create some colored sugar because my kids love to sprinkle sugar atop homemade breads and cobblers. I thought it would also be nice for my daughter to have some fun sugar to add to her hot teas. To make the colored sugar, we just put 1 tablespoon of plain sugar in a small container. I added about 3 drops of plain blue coloring, then mixed well. The color came out much darker than I anticipated. The next time we make this, we’ll use much less color. It’s very potent! As you can see, the sugar came out dark. It was still a bit wet so I left it on the countertop to dry. This would work with raw sugar as well, I think.
How would you use the Natural Colors in your kitchen?
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Hmmm! I’d try it for frosting cupcakes, also for coloring rhubarb to make it more pinky for pies, adding a bit to pureed soups, I might try to dye something with it just for kicks!
What a wonderful idea to make your own colored sugar! I didn’t even realize it could be done. I will be trying that one. I haven’t heard of this product, but I love that it is all natural. I would using most likely in my baking recipes! Otherwise it would depend on how easily it dyes other surfaces.
I think it’s ridiculous that food companies put artificial ingredients in things to save a buck. I wish the major brands would take some notes from conscious and caring companies who don’t use these methods, and vice versa. For example, I have a love affair with sour gummies, Life Savers in particular. I love the texture and I don’t mind eating gelatin. I got some naturally flavored and colored gummies from Whole Foods and they tasted fantastic, but the texture was horrible! Can’t I just have it all? Anyway, this stuff would be fun to use in cocktails! Did you think of that?
Oh, what a cool idea! I don’t drink alcohol but I bet you’re right, it would be balanced with the stronger cocktail flavor.
i love the idea of colored sugar! since i make my own icing for cakes and cupcakes, i like to tint it, so i would probably use it for that.
These are neat. I’ve never seen them before. I think it would be fun to add them to ice cubes. Make several different trays of different colors and then have a glass of rainbow tea!
I lopve natural dyes!! We would use them to make food fun!! And to make some of the fun colored cakes I see online everywhere 🙂
This is a nice system of adding color the natural way. I appreciate letting me know the information.
I love using natural dyes when cooking. I like the idea of adding it to the sugar! Neat! 🙂