The Fascinating Input of Flavour: Vegan Meat and Yoghurt Flavourings

We know that taste is largely dependent on smell: The combined process has its own word in English, flavour. But have you stopped to think that the fragrance industry is taking the matter of flavour into a most sophisticated level? Apart from the rather standard flavourings one meets in beverages, canned foods, prepackaged meals and desserts, there lurks a whole fascinating world of unusual and as of yet uncharted territories of flavour ingredients and molecules which might give us pause for thought in the near future.

According to Datamonitor, Comax Flavors, a company with a strong presence in the industry, has launched a line of kosher vegetarian meat flavors for meat analogues from sources such as soy and wheat to serve the needs of vegetarians and vegans, an increasing percentage in the US, the United Kingdom and Asia, who do not consume meat products but -apparently- like the flavour of animal-sourced food. Faux meat if you please. The Comax products include roasted chicken, roast beef, bacon, pork, hot dog, turkey and roasted ham flavourings. The interesting bit is that flavors are available in a variety of permutations: natural and artificially flavored, oil soluble and water soluble, and liquid and powdered versions.
"To the casual observer, creating vegetarian meatless-meat flavors may seem like a relatively generic job for a flavor developer, but it actually holds its own special challenges. For instance, it’s very important that such flavors be strong enough to stand up to highly-absorbent vegetable proteins. Through the art of reaction technology, Comax is able to provide ingredients that replace and enhance the flavors of meats while still keeping the final product in line with vegetarian consumption. Applications where these flavors tend to be most advantageous are broths, sauces and marinades, but they come in handy for a whole range of other meatless products as well.” So say Gladys Slovis, applications lab manager.

But not everything revolves around meat either! Comax is intent on the marketing of coconut water flavours (due to the high potassium quota) and a pleiad of sweet & savoury flavourings to be used in Greek yoghurt, often reminiscing classical Greek delicasies such as baklava. The rest of the flavours include cinnamon bun, cucumber (obviously the prime ingredient in a good tzatziki, hold the garlic) and cherry black currant.
"With its unique body, silky mouthfeel and satisfying richness, Greek yogurt offers the ideal vehicle to showcase ... true-to-life flavors to suit a given product application," adds applications lab manager Gladys Slovis. "Even at 0% fat, Greek yogurts taste decadently rich.” We couldn't disagree, even though we prefer our baklava on the side.

Further reading: Bell Flavors & Fragrances present the 10 "trends" in the way of smells for 2010 (including grapefruit rhubarb rose, Seashore driftwood, White amber/patchouli, Mahogany vetiver, Absinthe, Mandarin/orange blossom, Mojito, Woody iris, Satinwood and Szechwan pepper. Now you know why your contemporary fragrance is smelling the way it does.

photo via seattleweekly blogs (possibly subject unrelated to Comax)

Roger Vivier and Ines de la Fressange: 5 new fragrances

"After shoes and bags, Roger Vivier, part of the Tod’s Group, present their perfumes for Autumn 2010 to be sold exclusively in their boutiques". (Today we found the video accompanying the news via dailymotion, see below)

Five new fragrances in extrait developed by Rami Mekdachi, lined-up like a niche line based on raw materials (La Rose, Le Sandal, L'Iris, L'Ambre, Le Néroli) & identical-designed bottles which are presented by former Chanel model in the 1980s and French "Marianne", Inés de la Fressange. She wanted a sultry signature fragrance and she explains: “Our goal was a perfume with personality, style and quality, not just a huge launch with lots of ads,” she says, “so we used very precious and rare ingredients, just like a couture collection.”
According to Modelinia: "The model turned purveyor of Vivier style has been working with Rami Mekdachi to distinguish just what the brand smells like, and found it absolutely impossible to narrow that down to just one aroma. So she decided to go with five different perfumes: which are set to hit stores in the US in October, just in time to update your winter fragrances. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Inés has put her nose into the world of scents. She has her own eponymous perfume". [correction: had, I believe it's discontinued]
The new fragrances will retail at 195$ a bottle debuting at Fashion’s Night Out on Sept. 10 at the New York boutique (750 Madison Avenue), and will then be available at all Roger Vivier boutiques in October.

Isn't it endearing that she says has "an old lady trapped inside her" and "luxury is about not having to scent"?



photo of bottles by Travis Rathbone via New York Times

In Memoriam: Corinne Day 1965-2010

Fashion phorographer, famous for catapulting Kate Moss's career and photographing her in raw, documentary style for fashion and perfumes.

photo of Kate Moss posing for Obsession by Calvin Klein ad shot by Corinne Day via simonrasmussen

Amouage Memoir Man & Memoir Woman: new fragrances

The House of Amouage’s latest enigmatic Memoir fragrances for both man and woman explore the inseparable nature of beauty and depravity. In the words of the American writer Gore Vidal, “a memoir is how one remembers one’s own life” and in this fourth installment, the identity of Amouage Man first introduced in the series of narratives developed for the House’s Silver Jubilee, is revealed.
Inspired by the decadent mien and genius of the 19th Century French poet, Charles Baudelaire and the German philosophy of the doppelganger, Amouage Creative Director Christopher Chong, embarks on a deep and inquisitive voyage to unlock the unfathomable mysteries that reside within human nature. He expresses these influences by coalescing the provoking and potent ingredient of Absinth with other floral and wood accords to evoke a sombre mood. Incarnated from the introspective pages of Baudelaire’s volume of poetry Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil), Chong’s Memoir Man seeks to uncover his identity by seeking the
underworld where he meets his other self and alter ego, the Black Swan. In this emporium of vice and damnation, the anguish, the unwanted, the dark, the haunting and the unmentionable are all beauty of the truth.Represented as the female gender in this story, the Black Swan is Memoir Woman; she is him and he is her. Hauntingly, they come together as one representing each other’s past, present and future in which they mimic each other’s sorrow and pain. They are separated and reunited by the memoir they share, which Chong constructs in these philosophical and mesmerizing fragrances by piecing together contradictory fragments of accords.

Memoir Man unmasks itself with a seductive green sensation of Mint pervading to an intoxicated journey of Absinth and Wormwood, which opens the door to the underworld of self discovery. The fragrance continues to express the complexity and philosophy of the Black Swan with the intricate richness of sophisticated Vetiver.
Memoir Woman manifests with a spicy fusion of Absinth to resonate the magical aura of the Black Swan. This transformation is enhanced by deconstructing the redolent Tuberose to its core and reassembling the note in a white floral accord with Lisylang and Orange Blossom. As Chong explains, “I wanted to create a haunting fragrance that is beyond the restriction of gender and one that is both hypnotic and bewitching. I articulate this aspect by increasing the dark
wood accord with cashmeran, sandalwood and patchouli supported by an animalic accord in the base to neutralise the gender difference.”
Resembling black fog rising from the wet cobbled streets of Europe, both bottles are made of black glass crystal graduating from a dark to a lighter shade with silver metal caps accentuated by a multi-faceted black Swarovski crystal. Memoir is presented in a silver-tone coffer with myriad shades of black to support the Black Swan feather motif and is available in 50ml and 100ml Eau de Parfum. The fragrances will officially launch on September 22nd.

NOTES FOR AMOUAGE MEMOIR
Memoir Woman
Category: Leather / Animalic Chypre
Top Notes: Mandarin, Cardamom, Absinth, Pink Pepper
Heart Notes: Pepper, Clove Bud, Opulent White Blossoms, Rose, Jasmine, Precious Dark Wood,Frankincense
Base Notes: Styrax, Oakmoss, Castoreum, Leather, Labdanum, Fenugreek, Musk
Memoir Man
Category: Leather / Woody Fougere
Top Notes: Absinth, Wormwood, Basil, Mint
Heart Notes: Rose, Frankincense, Lavender Absolute
Base Notes: Sandalwood, Vetiver, Guaiac wood, Amber, Vanilla, Musk, Oakmoss, Leather, Tobacco

info/notes via press release

Memo Manoa: new fragrance

Reserved for revealing in Pitti Fragranze 8 exhibition in Florence, Manoa by Memo Paris is the newest fragrance to join the line up of the niche brand, masterminded by perfumer Clara Molloy. The inspiration comes from the El Dorado myth (the words meaning "gilded") and the fragrance is warm and luminous, as befitting the tale.
According to that a Muisca tribal chief covered himself with gold dust (thus becoming El Dorado, i.e. gilded) and dived into the lake Guatavita as part of an initiation rite.
The ceremony involved scented products as well, as recounted by Juan Rodriguez Troxell in 1638:

"During the ceremony which took place at the lagoon, they made a raft of rushes, embellishing and decorating it with the most attractive things they had. They put on it four lighted braziers in which they burned much moque, which is the incense of these natives, and also resin and many other perfumes. The lagoon was large and deep, so that a ship with high sides could sail on it, all loaded with an infinity of men and women dressed in fine plumes, golden plaques and crowns.... As soon as those on the raft began to burn incense, they also lit braziers on the shore, so that the smoke hid the light of day".

Manoa became the island which was formed from the deposited treasures for the gods.
In later years the gilded man became a city, the lost "city of gold" fascinating and eluding explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors. Deluded by the legend, Francisco Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro would depart from Quito in 1541 in a famous and disastrous expedition towards the Amazon Basin.

Manoa the fragrance is comprised of notes of bergamot, lemon, ginger, cypress absolute, tonka bean, vanilla, opoponax and labdanum.

pic via extrait.it