FLAVOR LOG // 013
Share
BEHIND THE FLAVOR
Monkey Bread is one of those desserts where either someone grew up with it and lights up the moment they hear the name... or they have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. If you happen to fall into the second group, Monkey Bread isn't actually bread at all. It's pieces of soft pastry dough coated in butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and caramel, baked together until the outside becomes sticky and caramelized while the inside stays warm and pillowy. It's the kind of dessert that disappears because everyone keeps pulling off "just one more piece."
From the beginning, we knew cinnamon and caramel would carry most of the flavor. The challenge wasn't making a great cinnamon caramel coffee. The challenge was making something that tasted more like actual Monkey Bread.
The answer ended up being pastry dough. Not a lot of it. Just a hint.
In fact, the pastry dough isn't something you consciously taste. It's something you miss the moment it's gone.
The breakthrough came during one of our comparison tastings. We brewed two cups side by side. One was simply cinnamon and caramel. The other contained the exact same cinnamon and caramel profile with just a touch of pastry dough layered underneath.
The cinnamon and caramel version tasted exactly like what it was, a really good cinnamon caramel coffee.
The second cup wasn't dramatically different, it was just more complete
The pastry dough wasn't over powering so as to become the top note of the flavors. It wasn't supposed to. It wasn't there for someone to say, "I taste pastry dough."
Instead, it quietly changed how everything else was perceived. It gave the cinnamon somewhere to settle. It gave the caramel something to melt into. It created the impression that the flavors weren't floating independently anymore. They now came together to form one thing - Monkey Bread. One percent of the flavor was responsible for the other ninety-nine percent on the believability scale.
That's one of the things we've learned while developing Flavor52. Sometimes the ingredient that makes the biggest difference is the one most people will never notice. It's not the star of the show. It's the supporting actor that makes everyone else believable.
Monkey Bread isn't defined by cinnamon. and it isn't defined by caramel.
It's defined by what happens when those flavors are wrapped in the subtle warmth of freshly baked pastry.
Sometimes the smallest ingredient leaves the biggest impression.
MISSION STATUS: Flavor approved & launched
Flavors Released: 8 / 52
Mondays Missed: 0
World Record Status: On Track