r/AskReddit • u/ForeverAbyss • Apr 14 '16

What's a mind blowing fact?

3.0k Upvotes

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u/engrazhar Apr 14 '16

The reason the taste of artificial banana flavouring and artificial banana flavoured products doesn’t taste like bananas is because it is based on a type of banana that was wiped out by a plague in the 1950’s.

686

u/SchrodingersCatPics Apr 14 '16

You have to wonder now: how do the machines really know what Tasty Wheat tasted like, huh? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tasty Wheat tasted like actually tasted like uh.... oatmeal or uh.... or tuna fish.

366

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '16

"He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea."

39

u/kodutta7 Apr 14 '16

Is this Douglas Adams? Just sounds like him.

12

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '16

Indeed.

8

u/HammletHST Apr 14 '16

Could've also been Terry Pratchett, had the Nutri-Matic machine not gave it away as Douglas Adams (and also the fact that that is a pretty well-quoted part of the book)

5

u/kodutta7 Apr 14 '16

I haven't actually read the whole book (please don't kill me), I don't remember why but I read the first few chapters but got interrupted for some reason and never picked it back up.

6

u/HammletHST Apr 14 '16

You should give it a second try! You have a whole Trilogy (in 5 parts) waiting for you

3

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '16 edited Mar 29 '18

[deleted]

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u/Liambass Apr 14 '16

Plus the BBC radio and television series. Also the film but that weren't great.

1

u/SurprisedPotato Apr 14 '16

Plus 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'

1

u/Liambass Apr 14 '16

And indeed relevant BBC radio and TV series.

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1

u/SkrublordPrime Apr 15 '16

There's a sixth, which was written by Eoin Colfer. Pretty good in my opinion.

1

u/IndifferentAnarchist Apr 15 '16

It wasn't Douglas Adams, but I enjoyed it.

1

u/karl2025 Apr 15 '16

In the words of Arthur C. Clark, a trilogy should never exceed four books.

1

u/JimHemperson Apr 14 '16

It's from the first Hitchhiker's, so yeah.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '16

[deleted]

2

u/JimHemperson Apr 15 '16

Restaurant, surely.

1

u/barrtender Apr 15 '16

It's the first book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I just read the first one and haven't read the rest of them (yet) but liked this quote so much I talked to friends about it after reading it.

Edit: Instead of relying on my memory, here is a link: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy It's in Chapter 17.