system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Trek] What makes replicated food different from the "real deal?"

Two months ago I completed my first successful away mission in the Beta Quadrant.  Much to my surprise, Captain Hansen commended me in front of the whole crew, even calling me by my full name!  Even though it was a boring deuterium survey mission in a nearby collapsing nebula, my bunk mate insisted on celebrating that evening after our duty shifts.

Thinking we'd hit the holodecks, I was surprised yet again when he produced a bottle of 18 year old scotch he had squirreled away in a loose bulkhead.  He told me he'd been saving it for a special occasion.  

"Why can't you just replicate a bottle instead of violating several starfleet protocols to sneak it on board?" I asked.

"No, I'm sick of that replicated stuff.  This here is the 'real deal.'"

Not wanting to report him for such a minor infraction, or seem insensitive, I thanked him and accepted a tumbler full of that rich oaky liquor.  Don't get me wrong, I'm no syntheholic, but I couldn't turn his offer down without insulting the guy.  He clearly went to great pains to save this stuff.

The only thing I kept thinking is that it just tasted like replicated scotch.  Our ship uses standard Starfleet protocols to calibrate all of our equipment, and they are maintained rigorously.  I could imagine one being able to notice a difference if, say, an EPS relay fused to a plasma conduit, overloading the array, but no such event happened.  Our replicator should be making duplicates that are accurate to their database templates within .3 microns.  There's no way one could tell the difference!  

Does anyone else notice a difference between replicated foods/drink and the real deal?
gpt
Replicated food isn't made by exactly duplicating a real item of food, as that would be too complex.  Instead it replicates a tiny portion of food over and over, and assembles that into a replicated meal.  So every piece of spaghetti tastes EXACTLY the same as the other pieces for example.  Eventually you start to notice.