Key Takeaways
- Edlong’s dairy flavors offer functional benefits that help mask off-notes in plant-based beverages.
- Sensory evaluations showed that Edlong flavors improved the taste, enhancing creaminess and sweetness.
- The use of non-dairy flavors allows developers to create vegan beverages while meeting consumer demand.
- Learn more about improving plant-based flavors in the white paper ‘Making Plant-Based Delicious.’
From masking to mouthfeel, our dairy flavors have unique functional benefits beyond those often associated with “flavor.” For example, quite a bit of our research has been devoted to ways to mask off-notes in plant-based beverages. These beverages typically contain bitterness, metallic and cardboard notes.
Recently, we conducted sensory evaluations of two different plant-based beverages. The first version was designed to mask off-notes. In contrast, the second version masked those off-notes while also enhancing the creaminess and sweetness of the finished beverage.
The Impact of Flavors
Our sensory evaluations revealed that the base product of this plant-based beverage, without Edlong flavors, had an undesirable flavor profile with earthy, cardboard and residual bitterness. It also had evident cooked vegetable protein notes. Our Edlong masking flavor neutralized the off-notes. We then added a combination of Edlong milk and sweet dairy flavors to enhance the creaminess and richness. This also increased the overall perception of sweetness. Because we used non-dairy flavors the beverage was still completely vegan.
Our pea and rice protein beverage is merely one example of how developers can expand their product range to meet consumer demand. This is done with the addition of natural dairy-free and vegan flavors, at low levels.
Read our white paper, Making Plant-Based Delicious, for even more information about how Edlong is helping move plant-based from emerging trend to mainstream. In addition, you can improve the taste of plant-based products.
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