Umami: The great taste of soy

If you’re looking for the latest and greatest in food trends, look no further than the flavour of umami! Umami is not an ingredient or a product but rather a taste. We have five key taste profiles: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.

Umami is the taste found in many of our favourite foods: aged cheese, meat, mushrooms, tomatoes, and soy foods like miso or soy sauce! It is classified as a rich, meaty flavour and is particularly strong in aged or fermented foods. It is the taste sensation derived from several amino acids and nucleotides (such as glutamate and aspartate).

A Japanese scientist was the first to discover the savoury taste of the amino acid glutamic acid, which was found to occur in soup stocks made with seaweed. This fifth basic taste—alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter—was named umami, meaning “savouriness” in Japanese.

Looking for ways to explore this new taste? Recipes made with miso or soy sauce have a strong umami taste. Check out one of our recipes below to enrich your umami flavours in your next meal.