The TASTY Standard

The Tonic and Sustenance's Total Yumminess standard is a special alchemical formula used when creating medicine meals. It's a measurement used to determine whether or not something will taste pleasant when mixed with the right amount of Health Potion.

The History of Medicine Meals

Health Potions aren't easily digestible. They're thick enough to be a choking hazard and are best described as tasting 'worse than whatever pain you're going through in the first place'. As a result, most Health Potions were only reserved for absolute emergencies. While health potions are capable of rapidly turning a flesh wound into scarred flesh, healing bone fractures, and even regenerating lost limbs depending on the potency, the flavor is so indescribably vile that many soldiers would rather take amputation over restoration.   The fact it used to irreperably damage tastebuds is a testament to its flavor profile; it often had to be watered down due to its thickness, which lead to prolonged suffering.   Enter the discovery of medicine meals.   Eben Mace, An Alchemist that served in the Torman military lost his taste when he drank his own potion to restore his hands in a horrid accident. In an effort to dilute its flavour and create something more palatable, he began studying a way to safely administer health potions without further damaging its victims.  

Medicine Bread

A known phenomena was that health potions would dilute their thickness when baked. However, in time, he discovered a new fact; the flavour became much less oppressive when baked in bread. This lead to the finding of Medicine Bread; often jokingly called bricks due to the hardness and color, Medicine Bread became the main standard for health potions for a long time. It was hard enough to wear down teeth, but palatable enough to not offend the senses.  

Medicine Meals

The modern medicine meal came to being today when an apprentice to Eben Mace discovered an interesting phenomena; larger loaves of bread tasted pleasant compared to smaller loafs. In time, the fledgling apprentice discovered that the size of the bread wasn't determining the flavor of the created meals, but the caloric count.   Calories were the secret to determining how to palatably take a health potion.   And so the TASTY standard was born! An equation that takes teaspoons of health potion and divides it among individiual calories to determine the ideal taste ratio. The potion's foul flavor was cooked out and baked across the meal. Soldiers and adventurers live active lives anyway, so most meals were left calorie dense. Not only could people heal after a rough battle, but they could also eat a palatable meal to mend after battle.