DISCOVER EXOTIC FLAVORS

Monin Inspires Bartenders With The Flavor Of Yuzu

By Terri Marshall

SINCE THE COMPANY’S FOUNDING IN 1912, Monin’s commitment to creating the highest-quality flavorings for beverages, cocktails, coffees, and cuisine continues. The company’s practice of staying atop current food and beverage industry trends, menu placements, and more contribute to Monin’s success in developing mouthwatering flavors that inspire bartenders and chefs.

Today, Monin continues to build on its history of innovation and brings unique, on-trend flavorings to market like Yuzu Purée. Monin’s Yuzu Purée is made with authentic ingredients and offers a beautiful, premium recipe replacement for lemon or lime. With a flavor reminiscent of grapefruit, lemon, and sour mandarin, this clean label Yuzu Purée brings subtle floral notes and a tart citrus texture to cocktails, mocktails, lemonades, iced teas, and an endless number of drink creations. It’s also great on the culinary side in dressings, marinades, and desserts.

“Our Yuzu Purée is exotic and fun to play with in the bar and culinary space. It’s a novel way for bartenders and chefs to incorporate authentic, delicious fruit flavors into FOH and BOH creations,” says Senior Vice President of Marketing Stasha Johnston. “Fresh yuzu can be difficult to find depending on time of year and location. This purée offers consistency, convenience, and bold flavor all year round. Plus, it’s trending in F&B right now, so it’s a great way for operators to stand out from their competitors with a unique and differentiating menu item.”

Asian-inspired flavors continue to enjoy popularity in North America as part of the larger trend of globalization within food and beverage menus. From fast casual to fine dining, the adoption of yuzu in beverage and culinary recipes lives at the intersection of sweet, floral, and slightly tart, which tracks with increased interest in bitter and citrus flavors among consumers. Yuzu is elegant and complex but with enough similarity to other citrus fruits to feel accessible.

“The flavors of yuzu intersect at that cross section of both mysterious and familiar, so there’s a curiosity around it, while still being approachable. It is catching on quite quickly in the industry and we are seeing riffs on classics like the Yuzu Collins or Yuzu Margaritas,” says Stasha. “It is an amazing ingredient to add depth of flavor and complex citrus notes to any drink.”

As for Monin’s purée line, this company has the will to continue to provide a toolbox of amazing flavors designed to help customers build the inventive drinks they dream up. “Our purées don’t require thawing, refrigeration, or muddling, which makes for easy prep and storage,” shares Stasha. “For traditionally difficult flavors to extract, like yuzu or banana, our purée line offers bartenders an easy solution to achieving a bold, premium taste full of real fruit and balanced sweetness.”

Think of the Yuzu Purée as a Swiss Army Knife for bartenders. It has so many uses. Add it to frozen drinks like frozen yuzu lemonade or experiment pairing it with rich flavors like olive oils or savory marinades. Yuzu can be a showstopping ingredient when you let it shine in a cocktail or mocktail.