Spirit Signatures: the Taste of Fine Spirits

While it’s true that the brown spirits category continues to grow, it’s also true that millennial and Gen Z consumers are seeking reduced alcohol or even alcohol-free alternatives.

WITH THE LAUNCH of Spirit Signatures, a portfolio of taste solutions for beverages, Symrise has discovered the taste mystery behind brown spirits like scotch, bourbon, whiskey, brandy, and dark rum. Spirit Signatures represent Symrise’s flavour, applications and technology expertise put to life to design, decode, and deliver the essence of premium spirit brands without the alcohol.

In order to create these exceptional flavours, the Symrise beverage team took a deep dive into deciphering each step in spirits production. They then decoded these steps to understand more about the molecular levels and chemical compositions that result from each process.

Using scotch whiskey distillation as an example, there are a total of ten individual processes involved in production: malting, kilting, peating, mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, filtration, blending, and bottling.

Every one of these ten steps have an effect on flavour formation. The Symrise team – including flavourists and certified Master Distillers – applied their expertise to the analysis of the flavour characteristics that each step imparted to the whiskey. This knowledge, coupled with Symrise’s proprietary technologies including SymOak advanced maturation and SymBouquet spirits taste modulation, led to the creation of a Symrise flavour top note plus botanical extract that can now mimic premium scotch whiskey in an alcohol-free form.

Many factors come into play in 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 of oak used in the aging process.

Ahmed Nour, category director beverages, Symrise Flavor Division North America, further explains, “The Spirit Signatures toolbox was created using various Symrise taste solutions, including our Code of Nature Botanical Essentials. By using this specialised extraction capability, we can create botanical extracts that are unique compared to other extracts currently available in the market.

“Through our patented gentle processing technique, we capture many of the volatiles and complex notes from the botanical and add them to the finished beverage to deliver proper mouthfeel, along with a unique taste experience. The Symrise team created different oak extracts that will help to complete and distinguish the taste profiles of classic brown spirits, premium whiskey, brandy, and rum.”

The Spirit Signature portfolio of flavours are best applied to low alcohol/no alcohol products. They are also an ideal fit for CBD/THC drinks that can offer consumers the experience of a cocktail, but which legally cannot contain any alcohol.

CBD and THC infused beverages represent huge potential; a recent report from Grand View Research indicated that the global cannabis beverages market size is expected to reach $2.8bn by 2025 at a CAGR of 17.8%. The report looked at alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages using either TCH or CBD. It said, “The demand of THC infused cannabis beverages is majorly driven by rising product demand from adult consumers for recreational purposes. Rising demand for the therapeutic effects of the component along with the euphoria it provides is expected to bode well for the growth of the segment in the forthcoming years. Lack of psychoactive effect in the CBD drinks is widening its scope and many consumers are considering CBD drinks as wellness and antiinflammatory products.”

The Spirit Signatures toolbox currently includes Kentucky Whiskey, Tennessee Whiskey, Scotch Whiskey, Brandy and Rum flavours. These elements recreate top notes that mimic all the spirit processing steps involved in the formation of a premium alcoholic product, including the barrelaging component. •

The Spirit Signatures toolbox was created using various Symrise taste solutions, including our Code of Nature Botanical Essentials

RISING INTEREST IN REDUCED ALCOHOL BEVERAGES

AT THE START of the COVID-19 lockdown, alcohol sales went through the roof as people stocked up and got ready for lots of time at home away from their favourite bars. As the months went on, however, alcohol consumption dropped worldwide as the appeal of drinking at home, weight gain, and health concerns began to set in for many people.

As the start of 2021, consumers were again making resolutions to do things like lose weight, drink less, and boost their immunity while also trying to piece together a “new normal” that for many, no longer includes consuming as much, if any, alcohol. The trend of non-alcoholic bar drinks being included on menus and in stores was increasing before COVID, and now it is back on track to become a major market as we head towards a post-pandemic world of beverage category experimentation.

ALCOHOL-FREE SPIRITS

While modern mocktails are steps ahead of the Shirley Temples of the past, they often are still missing what makes a mocktail feel like a cocktail the most, and that’s, obviously, alcohol.

The same argument has been made with vegetarian/vegan foods trying to capture the same dish sans meat and going from black bean veggie “burgers” to a whole revolution in meat alternatives that give the taste, feel, and smell of meat in a plant-based way.

In response to wanting a more authentic experience, more convincing non-alcohol versions of just about any hard liquor are being sold that boil down the essence of drinking alcohol without the booze.

For gin, the flavours lean heavily into juniper and spiced flavours to give it that sharp, piney taste and smell, while whiskey alternatives has notes of oak and caramel and rum tastes woody and very molasses-forward. It’s more about mimicking the experience than the taste, and they achieve this with spices and extracts that recreate the familiar burn of an alcoholic drink.

STOCKING THE BAR WITHOUT ALCOHOL

Not everyone is interested in being an at-home bartender, however. While COVID has put a wrench into a growing trend of mocktails appearing more prominently on restaurants, most prevalently in fine dining and upscale restaurants, many quick-service and casual dining restaurants offering takeout do continue to list and expand their mocktail menus, often offering the same or elaborate house cocktails in both alcoholic and alcohol-free alternatives.

There is also the growing demand to find non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits on shelves, leading to developments in more sophisticated flavours and styles with more thought put into them than the flat bottled lagers with alcohol removed of the past. Now, hard liquor, non-alcohol versions of IPAs, stouts, ales, and more can be found from reputable brewers filling a need in a satisfying and delicious way. Because of the 0% rating, general stores are able to stock up and coffee shops, like Getaway in Brooklyn, NY, can pour a glass of alcohol-free wine alongside a latte, essentially creating a new genre of alcohol-free bars but with the same social atmosphere as going out for a pint.