4 Steps to Creating Awesome New Tastes

Every time you take a piece of cake, bite into a protein bar or take a sip of your favourite beverage you can't stop to wonder what makes these products irresistible. And before you know you've had it all and are looking for a second helping, and then third and so on. But designing an irresistible food product is easier said than done. And it's further complicated because the flavour is a complex experience of involving all your senses. Even before you put the food in your mouth its visual appeal and smell entice you. While the products taste, both the taste it delivers immediately and lingering the after taste, and the bite that it has will determine whether you'll take a second helping our not. Moreover, the ingredient that you add to your product affects its taste. So how does one navigate these complexities to create an irresistible product? Here are 3 simple steps 1. Understand your products basic taste and smell Every delicious product has a unique taste that appeals to the consumer. However, the root of the tastes starts with the ingredients and the basic mixing process used to make the base and batters, so much so that cookie dough has now become a very popular flavour! The sweet vanilla of cake batter or the nutty tastes of protein bar is indicative of the final taste of the product such as the sweetness, nutty taste etc. 2. Understand your cooking process and its implications Each cooking process, whether it is baking, such is in cakes or protein bars or frying as you'd do with your doughnuts and traditional sweets like Jalebi and Gulab Jamoon has an impact on its flavour, due to complex chemical reactions. Reactions such as caramelisation, Milliard reactions etc, that result in compositional changes as the molecules of the various food ingredients, from flour, butter and sugar to milk the milk and eggs interact with each other. These cooking processes combined with the ingredients determine the ultimate taste of your product 3.Choose the flavour The type of flavour that you choose is critical. Whether you prefer an oil-soluble or water-soluble flavour, to what temperature you flavour needs to withstand. As one of the most expensive components of your product, you don't want to use a flavour that needs to be used at high dosages to deliver the tastes you need 4.Adding the flavour Flavours are added to products for a couple of reasons such as To deliver an awesome taste experience, that the basic ingredients can't deliver by themselves, To mask any undesirable taste that some ingredients give post-baking, To ensure that the taste experience remains as awesome on the last day of shelf life as it was on its first day of shelf life, what is called shelflife stability etc. Layers of flavour to help your create unique consume experiences. Thus, flavours are layered in keeping in mind the functionality that you expect from the flavour. We'll call these there layers the masking flavours, the primary taste and the top-up taste. As an example let us consider a pineapple cake. Masking Flavours: The first layer of flavour is to mask the base taste for example, in cakes vanilla is added often to mask the wheaty, oily taste of the batter and give a sweet pleasant taste. This is usually via a standard flavour or extract and is added into the uncooked batter. The masking flavours such as vanilla and chocolate often come inbuilt in premixes and cake concentrates, and you may not need to add them separately unless you want to give your cake a unique taste such as that of Belgian chocolate or dark chocolate tastes, which we'll talk about next Primary Taste: The second layer of flavour helps create a variety of taste. This is added via a range of routes from adding ingredients such as resins fruit pieces etc. to adding flavours. For example, in a pineapple cake, one may choose to add a few pieces of pineapple along with the pineapple flavours. The pieces pineapple deliver the caramelised cooked pineapple notes after baking whereas the pineapple flavour ensures that the characteristic pineapple also lingers taste remains. Alternatively, you can use a pineapple flavour alone to deliver the taste without having to deal with the pain of managing fresh pineapple. Sometimes several flavours are used in combination. Combinations of cocoa powder and chocolate flavour are used to deliver the rich experience that consumers seek in chocolate cakes. These are also added in the batter before baking, as they are relatively heat-stable. Top Up Taste: These flavours add those subtle nuances that make your product different and unique such as the light tang of the of pineapple cake. But these are many times very heat sensitive and may degrade during the baking process. . Thus these flavours are often added into the icing or topping that is added to cakes after baking. They could even be sprayed on. A similar 3 step process can be applied even to other applications such as protein bars. Your masking flavours may be that of vanilla and nuts because. This masks the oily taste of the bar. The basic taste, depending on the type of bar may be delivered by cocoa, chocolate flavours, nut flavours like almond etc. and then the top-up maybe an enrobing of chocolate, if you feel the need for it from a taste and visual perspective. Flavour Dosage Perhaps the only watch out is how much flavour to use. The truth is there is no correct answer. Too little and its tastes bland and may not mask the base taste, too much and your customer won't be able to take a second bite as the flavour will saturate their taste buds. Flavours dosage can vary from as low as .05% to 1-1.5% of flour weight depending on the application and the processing conditions post flavour addition. That means between .5g of flavour per kg of flour to 15g of flour. In some rare products where the baking time is longer or at higher temperatures, the flavour dosage may increase further. So both from an economical angle as well as a taste angle its better to start low and keep raising it higher over a couple of trials. Perhaps make 3 or 4 batters and try it at different dosages and bake them altogether if you have a large enough oven or you could do your trials sequentially. Beyond these basic principles, there are very few rules when it comes to flavours. Feel free to experiment and let us know your experiences. We'd love to hear from you.

4 Steps to Creating Awesome New Tastes

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