issue 1 2017

ingredients 33
about the subtleties of the egg
whites, about heating methods
and which ingredients from their
own portfolio they can use. One of
them steps aside for a moment:
she’s tasting the first meringue
pastry.
Allowing yourself something
special
In the meantime, one of them is
working on a presentation she’d
like to show a customer two days
later. It is focused on a special
topic: enjoyment. “A lot of people
want to treat themselves to
something special with a particular
dish, often all by themselves.” The
marketing expert analysed a lot of
studies on this, surveyed her
colleagues in the office, gathered
data from international market
research companies and monitored
the new product launches of the
major manufacturers. “The
development fits with our time:
Because of constantly increasing
pressure, especially at work, more
and more consumers want to treat
themselves to a reward. They take
off some of that pressure, take
some time for themselves and
then share that experience, as
contradictory as it may sound,
with others – for example by
posting a picture of their food on
social networks.”
Popular now are rather classic
flavours such as chocolate, vanilla,
caramel and apple, joined to a
lesser extent by strawberry,
peanut butter, raspberry and
coffee. Seasonal ingredients such
as lemon in the summer or
pumpkin in the fall as well as
desserts with alcohol are also
often in demand. Consumers also
buy dishes that almost seem
nostalgic such as panna cotta,
crème brulée or cheesecake –
often, like with many desserts,
with unusual fruit, herbs or spices
mixed in.
Broad range of desserts
To go with that, the team has
developed a variety of desserts
over the past few days. They pull a
package out of the freezer that
contains four small spherical
bombe glacées. They showcase
one ingredient: Rainforest
Alliance-certified Symrise vanilla
from Madagascar. Other treats
with enticing names like Irish
Delicacy, Cherry Reflection and
Twisted Lemon use flavours such
as toffee, cherry, rose, blackberry,
lemon or even basil and sea salt in
yoghurt, milk, ice cream or
chocolate applications.
The, well, almost sad thing about
these desserts is that they are not
available for sale in this form right
now. They act as vessels for the
Symrise know-how. We use them
to present our flavours, natural
extracts, flakes and crunchies to
the food manufacturers. While it
was standard a few years ago to
simply add the flavours to a
yoghurt for a tasting, the Symrise
experts now go about it in a far
more elaborate way. This way the
customers get a much better idea
of how a flavour works in
combination with other
ingredients. Besides that, it’s also
a lot of fun to develop and taste a
finished dessert. Right now the
team’s working on a dessert
inspired by the French classic:
opera cake. The original is made of
almond cookie layers soaked in
coffee syrup, ganache – a glaze of
chocolate and cream – and coffee
buttercream. They want to make it
as an ice cream cake using our
flavours.
They go right back into the room
furnished primarily with stainless
steel where the pilot facility is.
There they have just filled a light
brown mixture into an ice cream
maker that turns it into delicious
coffee-caramel ice cream in just a
short amount of time. They spread
it over a cake layer, place another
layer on top, then homemade
www.foodmagazine.eu.com issue one | 2017