Flavour & Beverage Development Course

A list of words and names used in the industry.

When you start to develop a beverage, a common question is, "Where do I find food-grade ingredients?" Here is the answer.

All around the world, there are different regulations, but for the most part, they are similar, and once you understand which regulations you need, it is simple to begin formulating.

Flavour is often associated with aroma, and aroma compounds are mostly organic molecules of varying composition. These organic compounds come from many sources and have different applications when developing a flavour.

Before we can craft a beverage, like a soda or energy drink, we should lay out important items that all beverage makers need to know and answer the question: What makes a good beverage? 

Taste is a complex topic, but with a few basic pieces of information, you can leverage this to understand why people like certain products and that will help you develop a better flavour formula.

Most flavour compounds need to be diluted to properly assess their aroma, as well as formulate them at a safe level. Many of these compounds will not directly dissolve in water without chemical or mechanical intervention. However, a few simple and safe solvents, like alcohol and propylene glycol, can help with both.

Good beverages are stable beverages and understanding the solubility of flavour compounds will significantly improve your formulations.

Terpenes present a problem for beverage developers because of their water-insoluble nature and limited flavour contribution. But some terpenes are important so understanding their behaviours in beverages is important.

A beverage emulsion is a key component in producing many sodas and flavoured beverages, especially when these drinks contain oil-soluble flavours or colours. Understanding emulsions is important in beverage development, particularly when you're dealing with flavours derived from natural sources like essential oils or extracts that are not naturally water-soluble.

To understand emulsifiers you need to understand HLB which is a simple scale that identifies which emulsifiers work best in different mixtures of oil and water.

When working with aroma compounds, they tend to be less dense than water, and if they are not partially soluble in water, they are prone to float, even when emulsified. This can cause stability issues like ringing or creaming. There a solutions to this.

What is the difference between a natural compound and an artificial compound? Can artificial flavours be natural? And where do synthetic flavours fit in? 

Flavour development requires some equipment and flavour compounds to get started; nothing expensive, but decent equipment will help you on your journey. 

Keeping good notes on your formulations and experiments will help you develop better products. 

Creating a unique flavour can take time and can use up many resources if you try to develop a finished product for each test batch. With this quick method, you can save time and money honing in on your desired flavour.

The key method of flavouring beverages at the soda fountain 150 years ago was Essences. This is a simplified method for getting the concentration of essential oils to an acceptable level for use as a flavour. Though not as common today, understanding essences is important to understanding old beverage formulations you can draw inspiration from.

Extracts have a unique place in flavour development, which is to capture certain non-volatile flavour compounds that are not easily isolated by other means like distillation.

The use of tinctures is not common these days, at least for beverage development. But if you look through old soda manuals and beverage books, you will come across them, so it is helpful to know what they are.

Understanding how to take a concentrated flavouring, like and essential oil, and dilute it down to a safe level for experimentation and production is one of the most important aspects of formula development.

Once you've created the flavour aroma you want, the work isn't done. Aging the flavour has the benefit of creating a more uniform mixture as well as improving flavours.

Now that you have a basic understanding of all the components that can be used to create flavour, let me show you how to put a compound flavour together using a few tools and some simple dilutions.

Sugar is attractive to many people, and many popular drinks today are loaded with sugar because of this. You don't need a lot of sugar to make a good beverage, but some sweetness can really help flavour pop.

Acidity, responsible for the sour flavour in beverages, is as important as sweetness when it comes to formulating. Good acidity adds many positive characteristics to a beverage.

Salts play a vital role in taste. We know salt was so coveted that it was often used as currency. Every kitchen has a salt shaker to flavour food, but salts can be used in beverages to elevate the flavour as well.

Though bitter flavours are not for everyone, they do present a significant opportunity for modern flavourists to develop non-alcoholic beverages that are similar to many of the bitter cocktails that are so popular at the bar.

With all of this information, you can now put together a fully functional taster sample that would represent a beverage you could commercialize. So, let's go through the process and show you how it is done.

At this point, you will have all the skills necessary to begin prototyping flavours for beverages and building a complete tasting package to test your experiments.

Small scale flavour development is relatively new, so finding suppliers that provide small quantities is not easy, but there are a few that ship worldwide.

Getting started can be overwhelming with thousands of ingredients to pick from, but understanding some basic flavours can point you in the right direction.