Exploring umami

Ready to explore the world through taste? Umami is rising! The global umami flavors market got valued at $4.79 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% from 2025 to 2030. What is driving this growth? Health and wellness shifts. Consumers are looking for natural ways to enhance flavor. Umami-rich foods—like mushrooms, tomatoes, seaweed, and fermented products—deliver a bold taste while offering essential nutrients and antioxidants. The love for Asian cuisine has also fueled demand. More people enjoy umami-packed dishes like sushi, ramen, and miso soup. Food manufacturers are responding by infusing umami into snacks, sauces, and ready-to-eat meals to enhance taste and appeal. Want to learn more about this growing flavor trend? Read on!

Emerging applications

The rise of gourmet cooking at home and the influence of cooking shows and food blogs have also increased awareness and appreciation for umami flavors. Research firm SPATE analyzed TikTok’s top 100 food and drink trends for 2024. Sweet flavors led with 45%, while Umami followed at 20%. According to SPATE, umami flavors offer a rich depth of nuances, with two key subcategories, meaty (80%) and fermented(20%). Each of them is enhancing umami’s savory appeal in distinct ways. Viral Umami Trends on the Rise (YoY Growth on TikTok): Jerky +784.5%, Bean Burger +623%, Steak Diane +508.8%, and Paneer 306.6%. These dishes highlight the crave-worthy appeal of this supposed “fifth taste!”

Australia-based Vow Food created Morsel, an umami-enhanced cultivated-quail product. The startup is actively using biotechnology to produce new and improved forms of meat, claiming that Morsel delivers “umami, roasted chicken” flavors before melting in the mouth. The New York Times recently focused on several innovative meatless umami dishes, including Japanese-style mushroom wafu pasta—excellent cold as well! More leftover-worthy options include this silky, umami-rich doenjang salmon and rice bowl and roasted dill salmon (with umami-herbal soy-dill sauce). Sauce-wise, honey hot barbecue sauce can be considered a relatively low-volume trend with rapid +239.7% YoY growth on Google searches. One great example can be found in Kinder’s Hot Honey BBQ Sauce, with a hint of umami!

Tasty snacking

Looking to elevate your snacking experience? Mushrooms & Love’s Umami Delight Crackers offer the irresistible allure of umami flavors in every crispy bite. As previously shared, Mushrooms may support immunity with antioxidants. They can also help promote heart health by helping lower cholesterol and aid weight management with their low-calorie, high-fiber content. Add the brand’s UmamiSeas Seasoning to nuts, other essential snacks, soups, salads, or stir-fries. How about Cook’s Ingredients Umami Paste? For the ultimate indulgence, if you happen to be visiting NYC, Seven Grams Caffé offers an Umami Cookie with white miso, white chocolate, and walnuts!

Symrise supports balancing trending flavors, offering the richness and complexity of umami, delivered without adding MSG or yeast. Comment below on which tastes you want to balance!

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Fashion, fragrance, food and more!

Are you feeling passionate about art? Then you’ve likely heard of Art Basel—the renowned art fair that’s captivated audiences since the 1970s. Art Basel Switzerland kicked off in June with over 250 premier galleries worldwide this year. And the excitement went on from there. In November, Art Week Tokyo joined forces with Art Basel to spotlight Tokyo’s unique creativity and cultural diversity.

And now, the countdown runs for the 22nd annual Art Basel Miami Beach, which will take place from December 6 through 8. Get ready for an extraordinary showcase featuring top galleries from five continents, displaying works from iconic Modern and contemporary masters alongside promising emerging talents. 

While Art Basel celebrates art across all media, expect to see an emphasis on grand-scale installations. The fair also pushes boundaries with tech-driven art, integrating augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to captivate a younger, tech-savvy audience. Art Basel Miami Beach has meanwhile gone far beyond an art fair. Art converges with luxury, fashion, fragrance, gourmet experiences, and more. Discover the event’s partners and dive into the exclusive activities and initiatives planned for this year!

Style & scents to watch

Art Basel offers more than art. It presents a a style spectacle where luxury fashion takes center stage. Iconic brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci have joined Art Basel, offering exclusive collections and immersive experiences. Dior and Prada, with boutiques in Miami’s Design District, host private events that draw A-listers, blending high fashion with high art. Attendees dress to impress, often inspired by the art around them, and even Art Basel staff uniforms are stylish, thanks to partner GOAT—a brand that’s grown from a sneaker marketplace to a global source for trendsetting fashion.

Fragrance brands are also seizing the Art Basel spotlight. At October’s Paris edition, Guerlain launched a gender-neutral fragrance with artist Julie Beaufils, capturing her abstract landscapes in amber, floral, and wood notes. Creed Fragrances teamed up with artist Shawn Kolodny for Miami installations and holiday boutique displays. With many collaborations under wraps, keep an eye out for surprises this December at Art Basel Miami Beach!

Celebrity-fueled events & food

Art Basel’s Global Patrons Council consists of 181 leading private collectors from across the world, allowing Art Basel to plan unique events to connect with that network.  For example, for Miami, Dom Pérignon will host a night to remember with Creative Director Lenny Kravitz at hotelier Alan Faena’s Penthouse. The event will celebrate the release of Kravitz’s limited-edition Dom Pérignon collection. One can also book luxury experiences such as this yacht charter for a mere £4,000 per person! In addition, Miami will attract visitors and art fans to a vibrant cuisine scene. With the Miami Beach Convention Center event, restauranteurs from LIRA Beirut Eatery to Rosetta Bakery will be offering snacks to sit-down meals. 

Sustainable thinking

At the heart of the Miami event (and Art Basel in general) are sustainably minded practices. With Sodexo Live! as the official catering service, key initiatives have focused on boosting plant-based meals, responsible and local sourcing, and waste reduction. They are also supporting communities and transitioning to biodegradable and compostable products.

Symrise drives cultural synergy forward by innovating with sustainable, creative exhibitions at top art events. Planning to attend Art Basel? Share your favorite way to join the momentum in the comments below!

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Embracing diversity

Ready to celebrate Hispanic and Latinx cultures? Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) honors those who have inspired others to achieve greatness. This month kicks off on Sunday, September 15, marking the anniversary of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua’s independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico and Chile celebrate on September 16 and 18, and Belize followed on September 21.

The flags of Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba serve as powerful symbols during Hispanic Heritage Month. These nations represent the first independent Latin American nations. This month also pays tribute to the history, culture, and contributions of ancestors from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Celebrate by attending special exhibitions and programs at museums and cultural institutions. Check out local events like concerts, parades, festivals, and art exhibits. Ready to join in the festivities? Read on to learn more!

Shaping the future together

Curious about the theme for 2024? It follows the motto “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together.” This theme honors Hispanic history and looks to the future. Hispanic Star launched a 2024 Toolkit packed with messaging, data, and activities for the month. A downloadable Children’s Toolkit in Spanish and English for younger audiences featuring five fun lessons. This year also saw the Hispanic Star AI Announcement, a webinar designed to help businesses, brands, and individuals use unified messaging to reach a wider audience.

Ways to celebrate

Wondering how to get involved? There are plenty of fun ways to celebrate! Dive into Hispanic and Latino traditions like piñatas, Día de los Muertos, and quinceañeras.  Take a virtual or local tour of La Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s former home, or explore the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Latino. Gather friends and family for a game of  Lotería, Mexico’s version of Bingo. Enjoy vibrant and uplifting movies like Encanto, Coco, or Vivo!

Cultural cooking

Looking to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with delicious cooking? Sunset offers recipes that introduce adventurous eaters to incredible new flavors. Try the bright blend of citrus, avocado, and pumpkin seeds in a Citrus Salsa, perfect for dipping chips or tacos. Homemade Corn Tortillas or Basic Tamales offer a tasty upgrade from store-bought versions. Slow-cooker carnitas are “best eaten with a Mexican Coke.” And definitely try Fried Plantains—perfect as an appetizer, side dish, or dessert with ice cream!

Symrise has been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month for years. Explore dedicated stories that highlight and dive deep into Latino-American culture. How will you celebrate? Share your plans below!

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#InspireInclusion theme for International Women’s Day – a look back and forward

Step into a century of history – the inaugural International Women’s Day (IWD) unfolded in March 1911. March 8 dives into a day of global activism and celebration dedicated to uplifting women worldwide. The U.N. advocates, ‘Invest in women: Accelerate Progress.’ In 2024, embrace #InspireInclusion, is aiming for a bias-free, stereotype-free, and discrimination-free gender-equal world. Wondering how to join? Read on! Discover ways to celebrate and support through food, fragrances, fashion and resources.

Inclusion in beverages and food

Brands are breaking barriers through women-led and women-uplifting initiatives. Chikas offers a delicious range of savory West African-inspired snacks. Founder Chika, the youngest of seven, invites you to “Discover the Magic of Winter Flavours,” drawing inspiration from her family recipes that bring joy. Through her snacks, she helps to create jobs in her UK shop and her manufacturing facility in Lagos, Nigeria. You can read about Chika’s endeavors and discover recipes through her blog. 

The McBride Sisters, the largest Black-owned wine company, hail from wine regions in Monterey, California, and Marlborough, New Zealand. While located nearly 7,000 miles apart and unaware of each other for half their lives, they came together in 1999. Starting a wine company and SHE CAN fund, they offer canned wines, bottled selections, and brunch ideas). Robin McBride’s message: “Encourage women to color outside the lines, never settle, and empower each other because, as we always say, empowered women empower women.”

Chanyu Xu, CEO of her1 in Berlin, passionately supports women’s holistic well-being across all ages and life stages. Focused on women’s health, sustainability, and the food tech industry, her1 offers functional foods, medicinal plants, and natural probiotics.

Female focused fragrances

Discover a fragrant revolution: women breaking into the fragrance industry’s traditional “nose” domain! Philippa Biles, part of this change at True Grace, united with her husband Roger to celebrate their love for delicate scents. True Grace evolved from a Portobello Market stall into one of England’s premier candle makers, operating from a sustainably focused, carbon-neutral factory. Their latest collection, Essence of England, embraces forest and nature therapy, whisking fans away to mossy, moody moors reminiscent of a Jane Austen novel!

Another notable woman to watch is Amy Christiansen, the founder of Sana Jardin Paris. She transitioned from addressing inequalities at The Clinton Foundation to supporting female “micro-entrepreneurs” in developing countries through fragrance. The popular Discovery Set offers eight vials, including flowers collected by chanting Moroccan women, with a £35 voucher redeemable against purchasing a full-size fragrance.

Similarly, female-founded FrassaÏ of Argentina offers a Discovery Set with 50 € that can get fully redeemed with any 50 ml/1.7 oz fragrance purchase. Realizing that Argentina and Latin America were little recognized in fine perfumery, Natalia Outeda created sensorial journeys. For 2024, her latest fragrance story  Teisenddu, takes wearers on “a voyage on the Mimosa from Wales to Patagonia.”

Empowering Fashion

Want to show support through your clothing? Discover Eileen Fisher’s continuing collection – Love, Peru – an organic cotton fair trade project seeking to uplift the Peruvian community. Harvey Nichols offers several pieces, including the versatile knitted cotton tunic in neutral bone. 

After decades of featuring Navajo-inspired designs, Ralph Lauren recently debuted the first “Artist in Residence” collection with Naiomi Glass, a seventh-generation Diné textile artist and designer. Sales will support Change Labs, a Native-led nonprofit preserving cultural heritage and aiding Navajo and Hopi small businesses with social and educational assistance.

Inspire others to help forge an inclusive world by sharing your #InspireInclusion image across social media using #IWD2024 #InspireInclusion.

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