Hot Stuff! Creating Spicy Notes in Food Products
Everybody likes to spice things up every once in a while, and what better way to do so than with spicy notes in some of your favorite food and beverage products? Spicy foods have been a mainstay in a variety of flavor creation for years. Recently there has been more attention than ever given to creating new, delicious flavors that test people’s limits when it comes to the levels of heat on display. One of the important things in creating spicy notes in food products is crafting the “right” kind of spice. For example, the spice present in a hot candy such as a cinnamon flavored confection would be very different than the spice in a curry dish, or even the spice level of your standard Mexican cuisine.
Many different types of flavor ingredients can be used to craft spicy notes in food products. For example, Natural Eugenol is naturally present in clove oil and is typically used to raise the heat level in products that would utilize cloves in their flavor profile. Clove oil is especially applicable to baked goods and other similar products that carry a little bit of heat. While not inherently spicy or hot itself, it adds plenty of warmth to a product that makes it perfect for flavor creation.
Meanwhile, Natural Ginger Oil is a staple of Asian-style cuisine. Ginger oil can be used in many types of Asian dishes (such as soup mixes and sauces) to create the appropriate level of heat with the right type of flavor profile for these dishes. Ginger can also be used in combination with other great flavor ingredients such as pepper, chili, and much more to create the right spicy flavor profile for a broad range of spicy sauces and marinades.
And finally, there are flavor ingredients such as Natural Cinnamic Aldehyde, which is used to add a naturally spicy cinnamon flavor to a product such as a cinnamon candy, or even for a spicy twist to an unusual treat such as ice cream! Yes, that’s right – even ice cream can live on the spicy side, so long as you use the right products in their creation.
With so many different ingredients available for creating spice notes in products, there is a multitude of options available for flavor designers. Be sure to explore the world of spices in the creation of your own delicious hot dishes!