Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

There was an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal recently on the 5th taste, known as “umami”.

It is coming to be accepted in the Western world that in addition to our four basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, that there is a fifth taste that constitutes “savory” or a feeling of full flavor. Umami, a concept originated in Japan, is used to describe the taste sensation we get when eating something like cheese, meat, broth, mushrooms, nuts, etc. This may already be familiar to some of you, but for those of you who haven’t heard this before, it looks like you might be hearing a lot more of it in the near future.

From your high end restaurants to your packaged foods companies (Doritos, Nestle), everyone is interested in increasing the umami in their products, creating an umami taste bomb. After all while consumers are scared of chemical sounding ingredients like MSG (an umami catalyst), who doesn’t love some sautéed mushrooms on their steak or a little parmesan cheese in their tomato soup. Yum!

Marta Strickland