Unique sensorial solutions from an ingenious alliance

In California, summer has arrived. And with the new season comes some of its most delicious and treasured flavors: tropical fruits like watermelon, pineapple, and peach instantly transport us to the beach, where the sweet-salty smell of the ocean accompanies us on our journey. Other flavors, like orange and cinnamon spices, whisk us away to the mountains, where the intense aromas of campfire, roasted marshmallows, and mulled wine follow close behind, filling us with nostalgia and a sense of adventure.

Robust, memorable flavors don’t just get our tongues tingling and our mouths salivating but are deeply intertwined with intense and meaningful fragrances. Our sense of taste is only half of the flavor equation. The other half is the accompanying fragrances that can twist, transform, and heighten our perception of various flavors. Most researchers agree that our sense of smell plays a “dominant” role in how we experience taste.¹ Our noses detect tens of thousands of different scents, providing diverse capacity for detection and powerful influence over our sense of taste, which seems comparatively limited, restricted to five primary flavors: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.

Unifying Flavor and Fragrance: The Dawn of Flagrance™

Given that our sense of smell plays such an important role in taste perception, isn’t it time to take biology’s lead and improve the approach to flavor formulation? At Sensegen, we’ve fully embraced that our senses work hand-in-hand and have our flavorists and perfumers do the same. Our approach goes beyond typical scientific collaboration; we’ve developed a true sense of connection between our flavor and fragrance teams.

The outcomes of breaking down sensorial silos have been and continue to be phenomenal, much greater than the sum of individual flavorists or perfumers working in isolation. It’s a unique environment that we’ve struggled to name until now. 

We call it “flagrance.”

Flagrance moves beyond the simple integration of flavorists and perfumers. It’s allowed adventurous scientists to freely explore formulation from a completely new, innovative direction, infusing a much-needed re-invention of flavor perception. In short, we’ve elevated the definition of “taste”.

Solving Problems by Exchanging Expertise

When people from different backgrounds and life experiences can freely connect, challenging problems get solved through innovation. Flavorists and perfumers use different lexicon, ingredients, and combinations. These differences may have kept them in their worlds, but the flagrance approach has brought them together to experience inspiration from another planet. As we’ve seen, inspiration is an excellent springboard for the birth of novel solutions to challenging problems.

For instance, our flavorists and perfumers gather a lot of inspiration from the landscapes of California. While a flavorist may look at the vineyards of Napa, Temecula, and Sonoma and feel moved to create a refreshing, sweet sangria, a perfumer might think of airy, open, and fresh scents. Using these distinct starting points and collaborating on a shared formulation drives a unique and pleasant marriage between taste and scent, ultimately leading to a creative solution that neither would have developed in isolation.

Sharing a “Natural” Palette

Traditionally, perfumers have relied on synthetic compounds, which has posed an increasing challenge for today’s environmentally-friendly consumers. Clean, natural, and sustainable products are at the top of every consumer’s checklist, and the use of petroleum-based chemical synthesis brings philosophical friction between product developers and purchasers.

Our Molecular Precision™ approach has enabled us to produce a natural palette of ingredients, that satisfy coveted consumer desires. Flagrance inspires our flavorists and perfumers to share palettes, allowing flavorists to develop additionally unique flavors, which also continues to motivate perfumers toward “natural” ingredients. For Sensegen, this means natural and sustainable bio-designed ingredients.

Delivering a One-of-Its-Kind Collection, Inspired by California

We work and play in California, giving us an appreciation for all that the state offers, from our home in Orange County, up to the mountains, down to the desert, and back out to the inimitable Pacific Coast. Drawing inspiration from these beautiful natural landscapes, the many cultural fusions, and the sense of excitement that fills the state, we’ve created a quintessential California Collection, the “Adventure Road Trip.” This distinctive collection is born out of our flagrance solutions, producing a unique sensory experience with novel beverage, personal care, and home care formulations.

If you’re interested in learning more about our California Collection, get in touch with us at sensegen.com.

References:

1. Spence, C. Just how much of what we taste derives from the sense of smell? Flavour 2015;4(30). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13411-015-0040-2