Not all of them. But ours are, and that is a decision rather than an inheritance. Alcohol is the best carrier we have for aroma, which is why it sits under the whole Culinary Aromatics® range. Where a different carrier does the job better, we build that instead.
- Alcohol based, for most work. Culinary Aromatics® carry aroma into water based systems, disperse instantly, and spray as a fine mist.
- Oil based, for fat based systems. Pure Infusions™ are built for chocolate, confectionery, coatings and dressings, where an alcohol carrier is the wrong tool.
- Neither, if your process needs something else. We formulate to specification, across all four of our platforms.
Alcohol is the best carrier for aroma, and that is why it is the default
Flavor compounds in botanicals are largely not water soluble. Food grade alcohol dissolves them, holds them in a stable solution that does not separate or degrade on the shelf, and releases them cleanly the moment the extract meets heat, fat or liquid.
It is the same reason perfumery has been built on alcohol for centuries. Alcohol is volatile, so it lifts aroma off the surface and into the air. And aroma is most of what your customer experiences as flavor, since the tongue only contributes sweet, salt, sour, bitter and savory. Everything else arrives through the nose.
Two things follow from that for a production environment. Our carrier is organic cane sugar alcohol with no added water, which makes it suited to moisture sensitive work. And at the concentration the line is formulated to, the product does not support microbial growth, which is why the microbiological section of our certificate of analysis reads not applicable across the panel.
Where an oil carrier does the job better
Alcohol is not the answer to everything, and we would rather sell you the right format than the flagship one.
Fat based systems are a genuinely different problem. Pure Infusions™ flavor oils carry many of the same botanicals in an organic coconut derived MCT base. They are oil soluble and heat stable, which makes them right for chocolate, ganache, compound coatings, icings, nut butters and dressings.
The reverse holds too. An oil will not disperse through a batter, a syrup, a coffee or a cocktail. Choose by the system you are flavoring, not by which carrier sounds preferable in the abstract.
What alcohol free actually costs you
Removing the alcohol does not remove the need for a carrier. Something still has to dissolve the flavor and let it go again, and each substitute has a consequence you will see on your own label or in your own product.
| Carrier | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Propylene glycol | Appears on your ingredient statement |
| Glycerin | Sweet, so it shifts the balance of the finished product |
| Water | Supports microbial growth, so it needs a preservation strategy |
Four things we can state about every Culinary Aromatics® extract, each of which sits on a specification sheet rather than in a marketing line:
- No synthetic or artificial flavor ingredients.
- No propylene glycol.
- No added water.
- Built from the named botanical only, which keeps a with other natural flavors qualifier off your front panel.
If neither format fits, we formulate
Standard products exist because most requirements repeat. Yours might not.
Saena develops across four platforms: Culinary Aromatics® liquid extracts, Pure Infusions™ flavor oils, Culinary Crystals™ granulated flavors and Encapsulated Essences™ flavor powders. If your process needs a carrier, a concentration, a format or a packaging configuration we do not stock, that is a conversation rather than a dead end. We also support private label and custom development.
Bakeries, roasteries, beverage producers and manufacturers can order the range in 1 gallon and larger sizes, with a certificate of analysis on every lot. Specification sheets, samples and custom formulation enquiries go through saenafoods.com.
Every product across both lines is Kosher PAREVE through Oregon Kosher, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free and vegan, and is produced in an NSF third party certified GMP and HACCP facility.
Related reading
- Does the alcohol in vanilla extract bake out?, which takes the cooking question properly, with figures.
- What carrier is in your flavor, on reading a carrier off an ingredient statement.
- Oil based versus alcohol based flavor, the two put side by side by application.
- Flavoring, aromatization, finishing and enhancement, on the four ways a flavor can be applied.