The Umami Effect: Science Behind Infusing Japanese Flavours In Cocktails

In Japanese cuisine, one of the flavours that is brought out most prominently through different broths, sauces and pastes is umami. This is a savoury flavour, the fifth one among the sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes and its presence in Japanese food is a major characteristic of this Asian cuisine.   

Umami, while a tad complex to describe, is essentially a flavour that brings completeness into a dish. It is mouth filling and sometimes even slightly brothy and meaty.  

Such a complex and well-rounded flavour is being introduced into different cocktails by mixologists who are trying to reinvent and reimagine the flavours of varied blends. Inevitably, Japanese ingredients and flavour notes often make it into drinks that contain these umami accents.  

Umami In Japanese Cuisines  

Umami flavour in Japanese food is introduced in a number of ways. It is most often found in soy sauce alongside its pungent flavour and light acidity and is also prominently found in kombu ferments and  shitake which garnish many dishes. Umami comes from dried sardines too which are often added to broths used to craft ramen. This tasting note forms the flavour base of many foods and pastes like miso, udon and soba broths, chawanmushi or a signature savoury custard and even nimonos or simmered dishes.   

Umami Flavour In Cocktails  

Evidently, these flavours can be transposed onto cocktails too with the addition of certain savoury ingredients to alcoholic blends.   

With this, it is possible to build more depth into drinks because umami flavours give cocktails a certain rounded finish. This is especially prominent in those blends which have more pronounced savoury tastes.  

Another role that umami flavours have to play in blending cocktails is balancing their more pronounced citrusy tastes which may come from sour juices. Umami flavours also cut through the bitterness of certain spirits to tone down their more overpowering tasting notes.  

Another reason umami flavours are used in cocktails in contemporary mixology is because they undercut some of the overtly sweeter notes in different blends to bring about a more sophisticated and complex flavour balance.  

Japanese Flavours In Umami Cocktails  

It is quite perceptible then that a lot of different elements from Japanese cuisine are widely incorporated in drinks containing umami flavours. One of the most popularly used savoury ingredients for making cocktails is miso. This fermented soybean paste is used by infusing it with honey or making miso fat washed spirits that would build umami notes into cocktail blends.  

Another ingredient that is used in cocktails is nori or seaweed. Most often, nori is used as a garnish which builds slightly salty tastes coupled with earthy, umami notes into blends. Nori also has a distinct smell that adds into the aromatic components of the drink. 

As well, soy sauce and dashi, which is a mix of kombu and bonito broth, are two of the more widely used ingredients from Japanese cuisine that are added to cocktails for their umami notes. Both soy sauce and dashi also carry a light acidity which infuses another flavourful layer into complex cocktail mixes.   

White soy sauce can be added to drinks like a simple kombu martini cocktail prepared using 10 ml sake and 30 ml Tanqueray No. 10 Gin or any other premium gin of choice. A tablespoon of light, white soy and a nori strip garnish will turn this simple cocktail into a blend of rounded, balanced oceanic and savoury notes. Such an elegant Japanese flavour effect is a suitable alternative for bringing an umami touch into cocktails which require this earthy character.