Flavour Emulsions
Added 2023-08-29 11:55:48 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to making water-based flavours, it is well known that oil and water do not mix, unless you emulsify them. And that is what this video is about, and if you have asked about making flavours (essences) without using alcohol, this is the starting point.
If you've watched the video on How to Make an Essence, this DIY Flavour Emulsion video will effectively create the same flavour concentrate, but without alcohol. And once you have made it, you will use it to make syrups, just like using an essence.
Important Point
1. Do note that since these are just water-based flavours, they are a perfect medium for yeast and bacteria to spoil.
2. When making them, they are best used within 3 days and should be refrigerated.
3. When cooled or left to stand you may find that there will be two distinct layers, this is not the oil separating but is rather two distinct emulsions. Oil is still less dense than water so even in the emulsified state will tend to rise over time. You can shake or blend it back into a uniform mixture and use.
It's a big topic, but an important one if you want to make flavours. The best part though is that instead of investing in thousands of dollars of emulsification equipment, you can do it with magnesium carbonate and a blender and get results that are good. I will be exploring this topic more and some of the more detailed emulsion videos will be Patreon exclusives and hopefully, we can develop a straightforward method for making flavours without the expense of alcohol and lab equipment.
Alternate Source: Polysorbate 80
Comments
Emulsions are stable, but oil still floats on water so the oil emulsion will still slowly rise to the top of the bottle. The soda industry used brominated vegetable oil, which has a density greater than water, but dissolves in oil, and oil has a lower density the oil/brominated oil mixture would have the same density as water and would stay evenly mixed. For big companies like Coke and Pepsi, inventory management has been key to avoiding the issues of separation. Most soda, when made with high-pressure high-shear equipment is probably stable for 4 to 6 months so that gives them lots of room to keep things fresh. On a smaller scale, like we do, we need to make a few compromises or invest in equipment that costs $10,000.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2023-09-18 17:08:50 +0000 UTCHi Darcy, is the emulsion not stable on its own? Is it more stable once clmbined into a drink?
Josef Micallef
2023-09-17 02:32:46 +0000 UTCThanks. Industry emulsion for soda usually involves high-pressure, high-shear inline mixers. They create a fine emulsion but also have the added benefit of sterilizing the mixture due to the high pressure, so that's why you don't see an emulsifier or preservative on many soda products. They are also impractically expensive for us, so older methods are what we have to work with.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2023-09-05 13:17:17 +0000 UTCHi Darcy, very interesting topic. I am looking forward to the next parts of the series. What is the "state of the art" in the industry? Are the syrups of the big player (like Coca-Cola, etc.) based on emulsions oder based on alcohol? Thanks for everything!
Matthias
2023-09-05 13:10:14 +0000 UTC
