New Product Announcement - Hard Cider

GLCC Co. has developed an Apple and Pear fermentable hard cider base. One gallon of the 68° Brix base makes approximately 5.83 gallons of hard cider at 6% alcohol. These bases simplify production, allow for year round processing and have 5 gallon order minimums for very minimal commitment.  We also have 7 flavor packs designed specifically to supplement the hard cider for additional options.  Contact us to for further information and to request a sample.

GLCC Co. Events

GLCC Co. will be at the BrewExpo America 2014 - April 9-10, 2014 at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO.  Stop by and see us at booth 1535.

GFSI Certification Announcement

GLCC Co. is proud to announce that we are Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Certified, SQF 2000CM Code LEVEL 2: Accredited HACCP Based Food Safety Plans.

Sweetness Preference in Beverages

I grew up in Australia, where they generally don't have a "sweet tooth" to the extent they do in the US, which I suppose is why to this day eating maple pralines or some of the desserts they offer in restaurants feels to me like death by sugar injection. But of course when you're a flavor chemist the job is not to insist on your preferences but to understand everybody elses', and to make products accordingly.

When I first started making beverages many years ago, the standard regional preference seemed mostly related to latitude - the further south you went, the sweeter the product. The Canadians seemed to like remarkably acidic unbuffered products that didn't go down well (perhaps literally) even in the midwest, and at the same time they were drinking sweetened tea in the south that I recall we cynically used to call "brown lemonade" when we made it in Chicago.

They still prefer sweeter tea in the south, but I have noticed in the last few years a tremendous increase in interest in much less sweet products, particularly in certain regions of the country, and a whole lot of different niches for products everywhere based on the level of sweetness.

The difference is remarkable in soda/pop products if you compare the sweetness of a traditional product like Big Red (TM) with some of the more new age type products such as DRY soda (TM) or Talking Rain (R) from WA. They all have very enthusiastic customers whom I suspect would hate the alternative.

I don't think this is purely based on Calories and concerns with weight, since the use of artificial sweeteners is very widespread, and the sweetness is not necessarily less even if the Calories are. Perhaps these products came about because consumers were looking for lower Calorie all natural products and found the less sweet taste more acceptable. I suspect they will continue to buy these products in the future, rather than rushing to try to buy products sweetened with natural high intensity sweeteners (regardless of the enthusiasm by the promoters of stevioside).

From a flavor point of view the difference has become very significant, because flavors that are suitable for traditionally sweet products simply do not work in low sweetness products. The flavor has to do a whole lot more and provide a profile across the entire range, and even a sort of flavor sweetness of its own.

Lately we've had a lot of success in figuring out how to formulate flavors to match the relative sweetness levels, which we think is a useful talent for our customers. Perhaps this is something you can use in your own product development - or perhaps it's an opportunity to work out how to make a much less sweet version of your own products without the products tasting empty or disappointing.

Nectars

There was a time when nectars were extremely popular. There used to be a US standard for nectars, which was 35 - 45% fruit puree sweetened with sugar or HFCS. The flavor was always great if you used a good puree, and the texture made the drinks rather filling and more interesting than typical juice drinks, especially for products like guava and mango.

Since the standard was dropped there have always been nectars available in stores of variable quality. They have always been strong in the "Hispanic" section in the supermarket as they are very traditional drinks in central and south America, but mainstream products have been rarer.

I believe it has been hard to compromise between price and quality - cheaper products are more competitive with juice drinks, but if the lower price is achieved by using poor quality puree and/or very little of it the product tends to be very disappointing.

However, since we're a flavor house and quite good at true-to-type fruit flavors, we've had some success in making nectar bases that are both competitive and have an excellent flavor, color and mouthfeel (texture). We are offering these products as 10:1 concentrate bases that reconstitute with HFCS or sugar to make 20% juice nectars. Presently we have formulae for mango, guava and peach nectar bases, but of course we can make a wide range of alternatives if there is some interest.

We'd be happy to send samples of these products and some pricing if you'd like to give them a try.

Horchata (again!)

At the risk of beating this horchata idea to death, I did come up with a new idea that I believe is unique. Horchata is based on rice extracted in water, of course, so the pH tends to be high and this makes the product difficult to package unless you do it aseptically. What I have devised is a new process to reduce the pH to below 4.0 (ideally around 3.7 - 3.9) without an acidic flavor. This means you can hot-fill the product and still have a classic horchata flavor.

The traditional drink still has a cinnamon and vanilla flavor, but we've also made a couple of fruit type varieties if anybody is interested - mango and prickly pear (tunas). We call the latter Oaxaca style although I understand Oaxaca is in the south of Mexico and fairly wet and tropical, so maybe that isn't great country for prickly pear cacti. Of course we could suggest a whole range of different flavors.

If you have an interest in making single strength hot-fill horchata we'd be happy to send you samples and a suggested formula. I don't believe such a product is currently on the market, at least in the US.

Horchata (Mexican Rice Drink)

Horchata (or 'agua de horchata') is a traditional Mexican drink made from rice, sweetened, and typically flavored with cinnamon and vanilla. Classically it is made by soaking rice in water overnight and then straining the liquid several times through cheesecloth. Some of the starch thickens the product and some of the flour remains undissolved, giving the product a rather unique and pleasant texture. The drink is usually very sweet and served cold, and you have to shake it or mix it before serving. Some families add milk or sweetened condensed milk to make the drink whiter and creamier. Over the years we have had many enquiries for a horchata drink, but the fact that there are semi-suspended rice particulates and the pH is well above 4.0 makes for stability issues.

Back in '06 we had an inspiration to stabilize the product by making a pasteurized concentrate at 68 Brix, which makes it microbiologically stable due to limiting the water activity, and which is thick enough to keep the solids in suspension. This material will dilute 1+4.7 (ie. 4.7 parts of water plus 1 part of the base) to make single strength horchata at 15.0 Brix. The product is also quite acceptable diluted as a 1+5 to 14.7 Brix. That's still a very sweet product!

We are fortunate in having some unique equipment in our plant which is able to process this product despite the viscosity, and to maintain the delicate rice background flavor and light color. The concentrate can be stored and shipped refrigerated, and is sufficiently pourable to be pumped and handled in standard beverage plant operations. Since the finished product would be low in acidity with a pH over 4.2, product sold at single strength would obviously need to be handled as for a dairy product or else packaged aseptically. However the concentrate may also be useful in some distribution systems, for canned, bag-in-box and food service applications.

The standard product is flavored with vanilla and cinnamon, which is traditional, but there is obviously no problem in taking out these flavors and adding alternatives if you would like a range of flavors. You could, for example, make chocolate, various fruit flavors etc., all of which we could either add in the base or which you could add yourself.

If you'd like some more information or a sample of the horchata base, please don't hesitate to ask.