Kokumi literally translates as ‘rich taste’. It has been part of the Japanese cuisine tradition for centuries and is associated with foods that are full and flavoursome. “Koku’ translates to rich and ‘mi’ translates to taste. The kokumi taste experience can be found in cheese, yeast extracts, meat extracts and wine. While umami provides savoury flavour or ‘meatiness’, kokumi provides a strong sense of richness, roundness and body.
Taranaki Bio Extracts beef bone broths and extracts are strong on kokumi – their products are made from natural meaty beef bones.
“People talk about flavour when they’re referring to taste but they’re often referring to the mouthfeel as well – the fat incorporated contributes to a rich creamy mouthfeel known as kokumi – a Japanese word literally meaning ‘rich taste.’ The fat provides a sense of richness, and body to our broths and extracts.
“Kokumi deeply enhances flavour with the rich creamy sensation it carries. This provides the consumer with a positive experience encouraging eating and enjoyment of these foods,” says Dr Mike North, Site Manager, Taranaki Bio Extracts.
How is kokumi different from umami
Kokumi compounds don’t provide a flavour quality in themselves. Umami is a unique taste perception by itself while Kokumi peptides are known to enhance flavours by bringing a roundness and full mouthfeel. This means kokumi works with other tastes or flavours to enhance them and provide a richness.
Kokumi is commonly found with the development of some foods. It is prevalent in foods that have a longer cooking time such as slow-cooked stews, bone broths and fermented foods. The longer a stew or broth is cooked, the richer and deeper the taste. The balance of salt, sweet, sour and umami in foods is covered by kokumi, providing for the rich mouthfeel and taste experience.
Kokumi enhances the taste of other flavours particularly sweet, salt and umami. Slowly cooked foods, such as bone broths, have strong flavour profiles associated with kokumi. This is caused by the break-down of proteins that are present. Proteins consist of amino acids and peptides. The peptides and amino acids that are associated with kokumi are glutathione and gamma-glutamyl peptides. Foods containing these create a smooth rich flavour.
Kokumi is well known for increasing the savoury taste and richness of umami. Food manufacturers wanting to extend the flavour profiles of their food products have chefs that experiment with umami and kokumi as flavour experiences. This creates exciting new tastes for the consumer to enjoy.
To learn how Taranaki Bio Extracts can work with kokumi across bone broth and extracts contact us https://taranakibioextracts.com/contact/
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