01
Salt
Salt perception held up while sodium comes down. Worked on the bench for clean-label reformulation across savoury, snack and ready-meal lines for Australian and New Zealand brands.
Portfolio · Core tastes
The five notes every flavour starts from.
Sweet, salt, sour, bitter, umami. The five tastes every flavour is balanced on, worked at our Southport bench. Send what you have and a flavourist reads the brief inside one Australian business day, scopes the taste gap, and replies. No contract to start.
Read in one Australian business day. No contract to start.
About this portfolio
Five tastes. One bench in Southport.
Salt, sweet, umami, fresh and rich. The five tastes a buyer can actually taste, and the ones a reformulation team has to balance on the way to a finished product.
Each one shifts the others. Sweetness can soften bitterness. Umami lifts salt. Richness reads as indulgence even when the fat is down. Getting the balance right is the difference between a sample the team likes and a sample the buyer signs off.
VKA Australia has been working on these on the ground here for 23 years.
The five tastes
What we balance for you.
02
Sweet
A sugar-like sweetness that smooths the off-notes high-intensity sweeteners bring. Tuned for beverage, dairy, confectionery and bakery briefs where sugar reduction is on the spec sheet.
03
Umami
Savoury depth and mouthfeel. Adds body to soups, sauces, seasonings and plant-based proteins without leaning on added MSG.
04
Fresh
Cool, crisp, lifted top-notes that read as fresh on the palate. Worked across beverages, oral care, confectionery and functional foods.
05
Rich
Full mouthfeel and indulgent depth. Holds the eating experience together when fat is pulled back in dairy, sauces and ready meals.
Flavour Range
A working catalogue, by reference.
A starting point across the directions we build most often. Each flavour carries a VKA reference for samples and quoting; the linked profiles show how one flavour is developed to brief. Most work is custom and sits outside this list. Send us the brief.
Confectionery & Created
- BubblegumVKA-CF-201
- ColaVKA-CF-202
- Tutti-FruttiVKA-CF-203
- MarshmallowVKA-CF-204
- Candy FlossVKA-CF-205
Brown & Bakery
- VanillaVKA-BR-301
- CaramelVKA-BR-302
- ChocolateVKA-BR-303
- CoffeeVKA-BR-304
- ButterscotchVKA-BR-305
- HoneyVKA-BR-306
- MaltVKA-BR-307
Dairy & Cream
- CreamVKA-DA-401
- ButterVKA-DA-402
- CheesecakeVKA-DA-403
- Condensed MilkVKA-DA-404
Botanical & Mint
- PeppermintVKA-BO-501
- SpearmintVKA-BO-502
- MentholVKA-BO-503
- GingerVKA-BO-504
VKA reference codes are for sampling and quoting. Natural and nature-identical options are available across the range; profile, format and dosage are developed to your application. Talk to us for the full list and for flavours not shown here.
Where this lands
The briefs core tastes solve.
Sugar reduction. Sodium reduction. Fat reduction. Plant-based reformulation. The product development jobs where adding more flavour does not fix the problem. Core tastes give the formulation team a way to close the gap.
A flavourist on our Southport team sits with your spec, finds the taste gap, and proposes the modulators that close it. Samples come back to your bench for a real taste-test, not a slide deck.
Bring us a brief
Send us a brief.
A sodium target you have to hit. A sugar-reduced beverage that is dropping out at the top. A plant-based protein that needs body. Send what you have. A flavourist on our Southport team reads it inside one Australian business day, scopes the fit, and replies. No contract to start.
Read in one Australian business day. No contract to start.