Convenience stores, restaurants and beverage bottlers are all familiar with the syrups that are diluted to make a finished beverage product. The syrups are made from a combination of sweeteners, water, acidulates and, most importantly, flavor (in some cases juices, vitamins and minerals may also be added). But lets dig deeper into exactly what gives the syrup its final beverage taste, the flavor.
Emulsion or Extract, What's the Difference?
Flavor comes in two forms, extracts and emulsions. Both types of flavor are derived from processes designed to solve the problem of mixing the oils that come from plants and chemicals that contain the flavor with the water necessary to make a liquid that can be turned into a beverage. To understand the problem a little better, lets use a citrus fruit like a lemon for our example. If you take the peel of a lemon and squeeze or twist it, little beads of liquid will appear on the skin. These liquids, which contain the flavor of the lemon in a highly concentrated form, are little droplets of oil. We can use these oils to add flavor to any product, but to do so we usually need to mix it with water to create the finished product. Since oil is insoluble in water, we need to find a way to disperse the flavoring oils. These dispersions are called extracts or emulsions.
Extracts are produced utilizing an ethyl alcohol solution mixed with the flavoring oil. The best way to make flavoring oils soluble with ethyl alcohol is with a mixture of flavoring oil and 50% ethyl alcohol which is then left to sit for about 7 days. During the 7 day waiting period the soluble parts slowly eparate from the insoluble parts, after which the insoluble parts are the filtered and removed. This gives the flavoring extract a clear and almost transparent appearance. Extracts have a stable composition thus it has a long shelf life.
Emulsions on the other hand employ a different process in making dispersible flavor. With the use of homogenization, emulsions are created by forcing the flavoring oils to dissolve onto an emulsifying agent, usually vegetable gum. An emulsion becomes a suspension of oil on a water soluble medium which helps to minimize the separation that naturally happens when oil and water are combined. Emulsions unlike clear extracts are rather cloudy in appearance and weigh a bit more. Generally emulsions have shorter shelf life than its clear counterpart.
Emulsion or Extract, Which is Better?
So now that you know the difference between emulsions and extracts which one should you use? The one factor you need to consider when deciding is your beverages appearance. For clear beverages like lime soda, an extract should be the choice. If you are making a cola then the emulsion is the appropriate dispersion. Regardless if its clear or cloudy, emulsions and extracts are the foundation of syrups and are essential in producing excellent tasting beverages.
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