Emmanuel Laroche, vice president marketing and consumer insights, Symrise flavors NA, has announced the availability of the Spirit Signatures portfolio of taste solutions to beverage product manufacturers.
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Today’s younger consumers prefer beverages with either low alcohol or no alcohol. As Laroche explains, “At Symrise, we have the flavor, applications and technology expertise to design, decode and deliver the essence of premium spirit brands without the alcohol.”
In order to create these exceptional flavors, the Symrise beverage team took a deep dive into deciphering each single step in spirits production. They then decoded each of these steps to understand more about the molecular levels and chemical compositions that result from each process.
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Using scotch whiskey distillation as an example, which begins with malting and ends with bottling, there are a total of 10 individual processes involved in its production.
The team analyzed the flavor characteristics that each step imparted to the whiskey. This knowledge led to the creation of Symrise flavor top notes that can now mimic premium scotch whiskey and are alcohol free.
Many factors come into play in the formulation of whiskey, brandy and rum. Since they are typically aged in oak barrels, maturation in these wood barrels forms the distinct taste sensations of spirits.
The composition of oak is quite complex, and imparts different taste characteristics depending on the type used.
These flavors are best to use in low alcohol/no alcohol products. They also fit perfectly in CBD/THC drinks that can now offer the experience of a cocktail, but which legally cannot contain any alcohol.
The Spirit Signatures toolbox currently includes Kentucky whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, Scotch whiskey, brandy and rum flavors. These flavors recreate top notes that mimic all the spirit processing steps involved in the formation of a premium alcoholic product, including the barrel-aging component.
Ahmed Nour, category director beverages, Symrise flavor division North America, further explains, “The Spirit Signatures toolbox was created using various Symrise taste solutions, including its code of nature botanical essentials. By using a specialized extraction capability, we can create botanical extracts that are so unique versus any other extract you find now in the market. Through our patented gentle processing technique, we capture a lot of the volatiles and complex notes from the botanical and add them to the finished beverage for the right mouthfeel and unique taste experience. At Symrise we created different oak extracts that will help to complete and distinguish the taste profiles of classic, premium whiskey, brandy and rum.”
