In 1907, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, Kikunae Ikeda, began research into a particular taste characteristic of the traditional seaweed soup called kombu. It was a subtle richness of flavour, almost creamy yet savoury, and did not fall into any of the classic taste sensations of salty, sweet, sour or astringent/bitter, and the professor was intrigued.
What Ikeda had identified was the fifth taste sense, or food feeling that activates the tongue, and he called it umami, a Japanese word with a suitably complex family of meanings from meaty to delicious and essence. Umami is not as specific as sour or sweet, nor does it appear to affect such precise areas of the tongue as the other four sensations do; yet it is fundamental to our experience of food and drink, so much so that champagne would be worthless without it.
Indeed, the Champenoise, and high-quality brewers the world over, owe more to the brilliant Japanese professor than they know, because umami is the fundamental difference between their famous bubbles and those that are produced by the less rigorous method of just squirting carbon dioxide into a bottle of wine. The reason is that Ikeda’s research gave a sound scientific base to the characteristic taste of drinks such as champagne and conditioned beer that could not be explained by the other taste senses. He also gave the Asian
fast-food business monosodium glutamate, the industrial version of umami, which is specifically the taste of the amino acid, glutamate.
There is a theory around that taste is part of the human organism’s preview system that attracts us to essential food groups in order that we eat a balanced diet. That was before food processing offered the fast thrill of abundant sugar, which the theorists argue stimulates our desire for carbohydrates. That certainly explains why fruit tastes sweet, as do straight-from-the-garden carrots.
Of the other tastes, salt attracts us to essential dietary minerals and umami is the long-lost protein stimulant. Bitterness and acidity do not represent major food groups as such, but do attract us to essential trace chemicals, much as salt attracts us to trace minerals.
The best part about umami is that it is the texture and taste of the remnants of fermentation – of bread and good pastry, of cheese and soy sauce, and especially of bottle-fermented sparkling wines and cask-conditioned pale ale. So next time you read a wine critic’s notes about a top bubbly that has the aroma and taste of soy sauce, or fine pastry, you will know exactly what she is talking about. The same can be said for the “meaty” taste of certain red wines, especially syrah (shiraz), and the ability of Asian fish sauce to give your food, and some of your cocktails, a touch of savoury richness.
TRY THIS: PELORUS NV (WHITE LABEL)
Ripe, yeast-impregnated wine with a sexy, bubbled-up satin texture that slides across your tongue with effortless sensuality. Creamy fruit flavours provide the succulence that we subtropical animals love, without slipping off into fat-bellied fruitiness, and the finish just rides on into the sunset, leaving a shadow of savoury, slightly funky delight that draws you to the next glassful.
PRICE: $28. AVAILABLE: yes!