"Just think of us as the 800 lb. gorilla of vanilla," reads a sign on a wall in the reception area at the Far Northeast Philadelphia headquarters of David Michael & Co. Inc.

The poster, which features a large ape, is part of an advertising campaign that promotes the company's biggest seller -- multiple varieties of vanilla flavoring.

But that isn't all they produce.

David Michael is an international leader of its industry: food flavorings.

If you haven't heard of David Michael, you're probably not alone.

The company is one of the best-kept secrets of the food industry. And chances are that the firm had a hand in enhancing the taste of one of your favorite foods.

"People don't think of flavors as something separate," explained Julie Snarski, David Michael manager of applications and product development. "They view it as something that's just part of the food."

For proprietary reasons, the foods spiced up by David Michael can't be disclosed. What is safe to say is that most folks have either sipped, slurped, nibbled, swallowed, licked, sucked, chewed or bitten into a food product that the folks at David Michael have had a hand in augmenting.

Even in these nutrition-conscious times, most folks likely haven't given a second thought to why things taste the way they do.

Next time you visit the supermarket, take a look at the fine print on the packaging of your favorite food. You might be surprised to find a laundry list of natural and artificial flavors included in the ingredients.

For those watching their figures, don't worry: It takes only small amounts of flavoring to improve the taste of most food products. Small percentages of additives have little impact on the nutritional value of a food product.

Such compounds -- like amyl acetate, which smells like bananas -- are household words to the folks at David Michael, where creating flavors, according to Snarski, "is really what this business is all about -- making things taste good."

The flavor industry apparently is a valuable commodity in the eyes of food companies.

"Just about every food out there has a flavor," noted Snarski. "As major food companies cut back on their staff, they rely so much on their suppliers for (research and development)... . And all those store brands want to be the same as the name brands, but may not have the technology to make a flavor, so they come to us."

David Michael has created and patented thousands of food flavors over its 100 years. Snarski estimates the company produces at least one new flavor every four to six weeks.

Food products that David Michael improves run the gamut of edible and consumable items -- from coffee, ice cream, candy, gelatin, over-the-counter medications and vitamins to sports and protein drinks, vinegars and alcoholic beverages.

And it all began behind a bar more than 100 years ago.

Founder David Michael created his first flavor in 1896, a trademark product called "Old Time Body & Age" that, when added to raw grain alcohol, makes the liquor taste like aged bourbon.

That additive is still used today, as are many other flavor innovations created by scientists (who are called "flavor technicians") at David Michael.

"This business has grown from a small family operation behind a bar to a multi-national corporation," Snarski said.

THE SCIENCE OF GOOD TASTE

David Michael's first home was in North Philadelphia. Today -- along with its Northeast facility, which the firm occupied in 1971 -- the company has offices in California, Illinois, Toronto, France, Beijing and Mexico.

Entering the inner sanctum of the company's plant at 10801 Decatur Road is much like walking into the laboratory of a mad scientist.

Vials, beakers and other containers that hold liquid and powdered flavor compounds are analyzed and tested by a crack team of flavor chemists.

They're folks like Dr. Ben Jones, a flavor chemist in the processed-foods division. He works to develop flavors that add hearty meat tastes to items that don't include animal products.

Soy burgers, favored by some vegetarians who swear by them, get their flavor from work pioneered by Jones.

The good doctor also can give a kosher product a pork taste, without using any part of a pig, he asserts, and make a mean Chesapeake crab cake without any products from the deep.

And though he works with food daily, he hasn't lost his passion for eating. He sometimes frustrates his wife, Jones admits, when they go out for a meal and he analyzes his food before eating it.

Product-development chef Michael Morrison works with flavor technicians from different departments, each of whom specializes in different food groups and consumable items.

His job is to fully prepare the food stuffs -- whether that is by baking, boiling, cooking or freezing -- to ensure that their flavors remain intact.

The Northeast plant also houses a computerized sensory lab where flavor chemists taste-test products supplemented by David Michael flavorings. Responses are recorded at computer terminals, and the data is calculated in the form of graphs. That information is used to fine-tune flavors created by the company.

Despite all of its flavor innovations during the last century, David Michael still considers vanilla its "mainstay."

The company harvests innumerable varieties of vanilla crops -- a base product in many of its flavors -- from places as far as Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico.

The most accurate statement that can be made about David Michael, Snarski concluded, is "we're making and selling flavors all the time."

For more information about David Michael, visit the Web site at www.dmflavors.com