Is my flavor different ?
Time to time we are asked why the flavor has a different hue, or if we have changed something.
Generally we do not change our formulas, and in the rare case we do, we do to make it better and advise by our web pages.
However we think can be worthy to explain why some people can think about that.
Flavors are complex mixtures of defined compounds, which have been identified in plants, vegetables and animal foods, and natural extracts.
At FlavourArt we put great care to build realistic flavors, that mimic in the best way possible the real stuff.
This goal is achieved by the work of skilled professionals, called flavorists, that combine selected ingredients, from a vast basic offering, to make a great flavor.
Basically we make complex flavors, thus combining many ingredients, to achieve that goal, and very often, we use several natural extracts in our flavors.
Natural extracts confer depth, delicate nuances and overall complexity to finished flavor, and make in our opinion a flavor taste better.
We source natural extracts from a couple of selected EU and US high quality suppliers, involved in this business since long time.
Natural extracts can be purchased in many forms, by distillates, single or multi fold essential oils, fractionated essential oils, concretes, absolutes, resinoids, oleoresins, carbon dioxide extracts, macerates and so on.
However, working with nature have some small drawbacks.
The extracts are taken from a flower, the bark, the leaves or roots of plants, from fruits. So the natural starting materials are susceptible to geographical origin, time and method of harvesting, local climatic conditions, storage, breed.
Professional processors know this very well and work hard to get consistent supply and quality, and had streamlined their processes, in order to get final products meet exact specifications, but due to inner complexity of ANY natural extract, some minor variations are expected and unavoidable.
This can be noted in a slight color or hue difference, in viscosity or in the general chemical composition.
All this small variations can bring in the final flavor some small differences as well, mainly noticeable in the color the final flavor get, or in its top note.
To add more complexity to a complex matter, even "simple" flavors, manufactured without natural extracts can have some small differences when freshly compounded compared to an aged or matured flavor as the ingredients will react one to another to form "parent compounds" similar but not 100% the same.
This kind of reactions (acetals formation, hydrolisis, esterification, oxidation and many others) are common even in the food application, and this explains why winegar, wines, spirits need some maturing time to reach the full and finer taste.
In addition, flavors containing, as example, vanillin, cyclotene, furaneol or other furanones, thiazoles ans sulphur compounds tend to darken with age, or flavors that contain natural extracts (which may contain carotenoid pigments or other color bringing hydrocarbons ) for all the reasons explained above, may perform differently.
( a typical example is our Maxx-Blend tobacco flavor. Fresh compounded it has a light green color that turns to amber yellow with time)
The aging delivers a smoother and finer finished product and the overall flavor will loose some roughness.
These reactions are generally slowed in winter time and speed up in summer time, as heat play an important role.
About the time needed is difficult to predict as it depends on amount of flavor prepared, air incorporated, light exposure, outside temperature.
So, if you have got one of our flavors and at the first sight it might seems different, consider all explained here. 99% of time, some extra days for maturing will turn it to what your mind recall.
Of course, even if we put great care and utmost attention in our job, we are not mistake proof, so if an error occurred, we will be glad to replace a wrong product.
Generally we do not change our formulas, and in the rare case we do, we do to make it better and advise by our web pages.
However we think can be worthy to explain why some people can think about that.
Flavors are complex mixtures of defined compounds, which have been identified in plants, vegetables and animal foods, and natural extracts.
At FlavourArt we put great care to build realistic flavors, that mimic in the best way possible the real stuff.
This goal is achieved by the work of skilled professionals, called flavorists, that combine selected ingredients, from a vast basic offering, to make a great flavor.
Basically we make complex flavors, thus combining many ingredients, to achieve that goal, and very often, we use several natural extracts in our flavors.
Natural extracts confer depth, delicate nuances and overall complexity to finished flavor, and make in our opinion a flavor taste better.
We source natural extracts from a couple of selected EU and US high quality suppliers, involved in this business since long time.
Natural extracts can be purchased in many forms, by distillates, single or multi fold essential oils, fractionated essential oils, concretes, absolutes, resinoids, oleoresins, carbon dioxide extracts, macerates and so on.
However, working with nature have some small drawbacks.
The extracts are taken from a flower, the bark, the leaves or roots of plants, from fruits. So the natural starting materials are susceptible to geographical origin, time and method of harvesting, local climatic conditions, storage, breed.
Professional processors know this very well and work hard to get consistent supply and quality, and had streamlined their processes, in order to get final products meet exact specifications, but due to inner complexity of ANY natural extract, some minor variations are expected and unavoidable.
This can be noted in a slight color or hue difference, in viscosity or in the general chemical composition.
All this small variations can bring in the final flavor some small differences as well, mainly noticeable in the color the final flavor get, or in its top note.
To add more complexity to a complex matter, even "simple" flavors, manufactured without natural extracts can have some small differences when freshly compounded compared to an aged or matured flavor as the ingredients will react one to another to form "parent compounds" similar but not 100% the same.
This kind of reactions (acetals formation, hydrolisis, esterification, oxidation and many others) are common even in the food application, and this explains why winegar, wines, spirits need some maturing time to reach the full and finer taste.
In addition, flavors containing, as example, vanillin, cyclotene, furaneol or other furanones, thiazoles ans sulphur compounds tend to darken with age, or flavors that contain natural extracts (which may contain carotenoid pigments or other color bringing hydrocarbons ) for all the reasons explained above, may perform differently.
( a typical example is our Maxx-Blend tobacco flavor. Fresh compounded it has a light green color that turns to amber yellow with time)
The aging delivers a smoother and finer finished product and the overall flavor will loose some roughness.
These reactions are generally slowed in winter time and speed up in summer time, as heat play an important role.
About the time needed is difficult to predict as it depends on amount of flavor prepared, air incorporated, light exposure, outside temperature.
So, if you have got one of our flavors and at the first sight it might seems different, consider all explained here. 99% of time, some extra days for maturing will turn it to what your mind recall.
Of course, even if we put great care and utmost attention in our job, we are not mistake proof, so if an error occurred, we will be glad to replace a wrong product.