Craving is the feeling of tension prompted by a desire for an experience. The need to release that tension is a powerful motivator and purchase driver. Cravability is the capacity of an application to invoke feelings of desire, or cravings, for particular tastes, aromas, and textures. When it comes to beverage applications, whether it’s delivering a refreshing, exotic, sophisticated, or decadent experience, creating unique sensory profiles is critical to crafting the flavors in beverages consumers crave.
Consider fruit flavors. Fruit encompasses a broad and diverse spectrum of sensory experience and represents nearly endless opportunities for innovation. In developing fruit-flavored applications, beverage formulators frequently rely on acidulants such as citric acid and malic acid to impart sour notes and create well-rounded, authentically fruity flavors.
However, there is a potential downside. Acidulant ingredients at certain levels can be disruptive to the target pH of an application, which in turn affects taste and stability. Malate buffering salts offer a complementary buffer solution to control pH while enhancing fruit flavors in beverages.
Citrate and Malate Buffers
Primarily used by food and beverage manufacturers to regulate pH during production and on the shelf, buffering agents provide multiple layers of functionality. These ingredients help prevent sucrose inversion and have preservative qualities that extend shelf life.
Buffering salts can also be used to fine-tune flavor profiles. Notably, fruit-flavored beverages formulated with malate buffers have a long-and-strong peak of fruitiness while maintaining a fast onset of flavor.
All buffering agents introduce effects on flavor into formulations. One of the most used buffering agents in the beverage industry is sodium citrate dihydrate, which has mild buffering activity and a slightly salty, lightly sour taste.
However, product development teams are increasingly formulating with malate buffering salts to 1) achieve pH control and 2) have a distinguishing effect on flavor. By creating a lasting, one-of-a-kind taste experience in applications like juices, sodas, shakes, and smoothies, malate buffers give beverages cravable uniqueness.
Flavor Impact – Onset, Peak, and Linger
Buffering salts can be used to enhance the onset, peak, and linger of flavors in beverage applications. Sodium citrate imparts a rapid onset of flavor with a short peak and linger. In contrast, malate salts amplify intensity and extend flavor duration.
Malate buffering agents, sodium hydrogen malate and potassium hydrogen malate, are commonly used to modulate taste and pH in a range of applications with fruity flavor profiles – gummies, confectionery, and more. The same functionality can be realized in beverages.
For either RTD or RTM beverage applications, malate buffers enhance complexity, tartness, juiciness, and authentic fruitiness while easily integrating into formulations. Sodium hydrogen malate, like sodium citrate, demonstrates a rapid onset of flavor.
However, unlike sodium citrate, sodium malate-based buffering agents contribute to a flavor profile that lasts slightly longer and has a significantly higher peak. Likewise, potassium malate greatly extends the linger of fruit flavors in beverages and contributes to a higher peak than sodium citrate.
Differentiated Drinkable Experiences
Consumers will only crave drinks they strongly associate with a particular sensory experience. Therefore, the sip-to-swallow sensory experience of beverages is critical for success.
Malate buffering salts can help formulators achieve distinct, authentic fruit flavors and sour profiles, resulting in memorable, fruit-forward applications. Beverages formulated with sodium hydrogen malate or potassium hydrogen malate amplify juiciness and enable fruity flavors to last longer on the palate.
Substituting sodium citrate with malate buffers enables pH stability in a wide range of beverage applications, even at high acidity. That’s why more and more formulators turn to sodium malate and potassium malate to take advantage of how they heighten the intensity, complexity, and long-lasting fruity flavors in beverages.
Uplift™ Taste Modification Technology
Uplift™ SM (sodium hydrogen malate) and Uplift™ PM (potassium hydrogen malate) are two new malate buffering ingredients from Bartek specially formulated for taste modulation and pH control in beverages and more. Flavor test data show Uplift™ SM and Uplift™ PM produce a more intense, complex fruit flavor and longer juiciness than sodium citrate. Learn more here