Transforming Beverage Texture

The class of indulgent beverages dubbed “drinkable desserts” has exploded in popularity in the foodservice and retail segments. Although it’s the flavor of such creations that gets most of the attention, their texture is critical. Success may hinge on the crunch of candy inclusions in a shake, the icy bite of a smoothie or the caress of warm chocolate on the palate.

“The first rule in beverage development is to get the viscosity correct, because it very much affects flavor,” says Heaton, noting that the flavor perception is much different in a low-viscosity beverage than in a high-viscosity beverage.

“Increasing a food or beverage’s texture slows the diffusion of components to the sensory receptors, while decreasing the texture will increase the rate of diffusion,” writes Jeannine Delwiche, associate professor, Food Science Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, in Food Quality and Preference (2004; 15:137–146).

Consider the Lavazza Espesso, which takes viscosity to a strikingly extreme level. A cup of the chilled, mousse-like beverage, billed as a solid espresso, can be overturned without spilling a drop. It’s the brainchild of Ferran Adrià, the celebrated Spanish chef and molecular gastronomist.

Espesso has a following at the three Lavazza Cafes in Chicago, reports Joerg Oberschmied, vice president of operations, Premier Espresso LLC, Arlington Heights, IL. “It’s not necessarily a dessert, but people often have it in the afternoon in place of a dessert,” he says. “We put the espresso in a nitrogen-charge canister, add a little magic, let it set for 12 hours, and that creates the product.”

Observers have commented that the “little magic” could be anything from gelatin to a hydrocolloid.

Namy’s approach combines texture and flavor into a beverage base. One of his texture-builders is the addition of particulates made by grinding pie, cake, cookies or other baked goods. That creates what he calls a “fatstraw- friendly” drink. “You’re actually deconstructing the dessert,” he says. “It gives some crunch or some chew or some goo to your product.”

Namy also builds texture with cereal-and-nut clusters treated with a moisture-barrier coating to resist sogginess, and with a proprietary concept he calls a “gelato stabilizer system.” He and some colleagues created a drinkable dessert called the Cinnamon Caramel Tostada at a Culinology® challenge a few years back. The Latino-inspired drink had a full-bodied mouthfeel from the gelato stabilizer system, punctuated with chopped buñuelos, or baked cinnamon-sugar-coated flour tortillas, and spicy praline pecans.

“We’re starting to work with a lot of gelato-based beverages, because gelato is lower in fat than ice cream, but still delivers indulgent flavor,” says Namy. The full-fat version is only 4% to 6% butterfat when made with milk; fruit gelato can have a mere 1%. “It doesn’t cover your tongue so much, so it flavors more quickly,” he says.

Namy calls himself a “big believer” in drinkable chocolate. “A sipping chocolate can be served with a mini dessert, because it’s so rich,” he says. “Just 2 to 4 oz. of chocolate is enough. It’s a great end to a meal or a midday snack.”

There’s no secret about what creates the luxurious mouthfeel: the cocoa butter of the chocolate and the dairy butterfat. “It’s the amount of fat in there,” says Namy. “You can also get that with different stabilizer systems—but to be honest, you just can’t beat it.”

Almonds are a natural source of texture-building fat. The creamy almond milk served at Medicine New- Shojin Eatstation, San Francisco, a Japanese-oriented healthy foods restaurant, is an emulsion of natural almond oils and water agitated in a blender. Bryan Waites, executive chef, roughly chops the almonds, pan-toasts them to develop the flavor and soaks them overnight in purified water. He blends the soaked nuts with a change of water and strains out the gritty particles. The result is a smooth, dense beverage. “It’s like drinking cream,” he says. One potential drawback: the emulsion is unstable. “It will separate after a day, but you just shake it up,” he says.

“That determines most of your mouthfeel,” says Stiles. “If you want the beverage to be refreshing, like an energy drink, it shouldn’t be too thick. But it shouldn’t be as thin as water, either. Viscosity determines hydrocolloid choice.” Of course, in some cases, a higher viscosity is desirable, he points out, such as in a meal-replacement drink or a drinkable dessert.

Stiles says that, in some cases, natural fiber-based functional ingredients, like Citri-Fi® and Z Trim®, can create acceptable texture in low-calorie and reduced-fat beverages. Such products absorb water for a mouthfeel that mimics fattier beverages. This could make sense for seemingly indulgent products for adults. “People want the same milkshake they grew up with,” says Stiles. “I see making waste byproducts into functional ingredients as a burgeoning industry.”

Also competing in this arena is ConAgra Foods, Omaha, NE, with its Sustagrain® barley, a functional whole-grain ingredient high in dietary fiber. It is available as quick-cooking flakes similar to rolled oats, a steel-cut form, a whole-kernel form, and in two flour particles sizes—traditional and microfine.

Sustagrain has more than 30% total dietary fiber, including a large proportion of soluble beta-glucan fiber useful for building texture in drinks. “At certain use levels, it can have a smooth, mouth-coating effect, or by using the larger flour particle size, it can be more pulpy,” says Elizabeth Arndt, manager of product development, ConAgra Foods.

On the subject of using whole grains for texture, Namy urges attention to flavor delivery. “Bake the grain into a bar, chop it up and put it in the drink,” he says. Or make cereal clusters of yogurt-coated nuts, chopped raisins and the like. “They’re indulgent, but still good-for-you.”

Namy notes the growing demand for healthy versions of indulgent products, however contradictory that sounds. “Delivering really good low-fat, low-sugar products is what we’re always striving for,” he says. However, when sugar and fat are removed, texture may change, as well. A hypothetical better-for-you drinking chocolate might build texture with sugar alcohols, fat replacers and bulking agents like maltitol, polydextrose and maltodextrin, along with sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose. “They can help achieve some of those fat textures on your tongue and deliver a little healthier product,” he says.

The variables affecting the texture of a smoothie are the proportion of ice, fruit and fruit juice, and sometimes milk, yogurt or frozen yogurt. Blending time is also a factor.

Similarly, milkshake texture is determined by the proportion of ice cream to milk, the amount of syrup (if any), the temperature of ingredients and the time it spends on the spindle drink mixer. “You don’t want to mix it too briefly and leave large ice cream lumps in the shake,” says Fuehr. “But one or two tablespoon- sized lumps are okay, even desirable, because it looks handmade.”

James Scarpa is a Chicago-based writer who specializes in food, beverages and the business of restaurants. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of the foodservice industry trade press.