- Japanese scientist Dr Kikunae Ikeda defined umami as a satisfying flavour and pleasant mouthfeel that leaves a lingering, mouthwatering sensation on the tongue.
- Because Western specialty coffee markets lacked a clear understanding of umami – and the adequate language to describe it – these flavours were more likely to be labelled as “savoury,” “meaty,” or “brothy”, and therefore considered negative or defective.
- But more recently, Western markets have embraced umami. Chefs, bartenders, baristas, and coffee producers worldwide are recognising that this “fifth taste” elevates food and beverages with subtle yet game-changing complexity.
- From viral gochujang caramel cookies to tomato vine soda floats, umami is seeping into every corner of the culinary and beverage worlds, including specialty coffee.
Acidity, sweetness, and bitterness are all integral characteristics of coffee. But umami is also becoming more recognised, especially in recent years.
Umami was first defined as a distinct taste by Japanese scientist Dr Kikunae Ikeda in 1908. He found that the four tastes – sweet, sour, salty, and bitter – couldn’t adequately describe the nuanced flavours of dashi, a stock used in Japanese cuisine commonly made from dried kombu (seaweed), bonito flakes, or shiitake mushrooms.
The concept of umami as a “fifth taste” and a descriptor of balanced, full-bodied textures is a growing global trend. Although it has been fundamental to Japanese cuisine for over a century, umami-forward foods and beverages are becoming increasingly popular in restaurants and cafés worldwide.
Demand for the “moreish” savoury taste of umami is growing, as evidenced by viral trends such as salted cold foam, miso chocolate cookies, pickle juice sodas, and Parmesan espresso martinis.
But perhaps more simply, umami remains a valuable concept for black filter coffee, especially as producers continue to innovate with fermentation.
Hide Izaki at Cokuun and LaNisa Williams at Barista Life LA explain more.
You may also likeour article on what umami flavours you can expect in coffee.
Umami’s growing global popularity
Many believe that Dr Kikunae Ikeda was the first person to describe umami as a concept in 1908. It’s said that Dr Ikeda was eating a bowl of tofu hot pot when he noticed a distinct taste in the kombu dashi (kelp broth) that was neither salty, sour, bitter, nor sweet, but another flavour altogether.
After conducting research, he discovered that the umami flavour results from free glutamate, a salt derived from glutamic acid (an amino acid). Our taste receptors respond to glutamate in a similar way to two nucleotides also found in meats, cheeses, and vegetables: inosinate and guanylate.
When these nucleotides combine with glutamate, they give food a strong umami flavour – around 15 times more than when consumed on their own.
“In Japanese cuisine, umami is foundational,” says Hide Izaki, the 2014 World Barista Champion and the founder of the omakase concept Cokuun in Tokyo, Japan. He also highlighted the umami flavours of coffee in his 2013 World Barista Championship performance. “By using umami, you can amplify all four basic senses and create more overall satisfaction.”
Umami is found in meats, fish, cheeses, mushrooms, onions, asparagus, seaweed, and tomato. Ripening and fermentation of foods also increase umami, as experienced in products like miso, tempeh, Marmite and Vegemite, and sourdough bread.
The trend towards umami is growing alongside the popularisation of functional food and beverages, in part because the fifth taste offers a “healthier” way to satisfy food cravings.
“Umami gives an impression or sensation of fullness, without adding sugar or too much oil or salt,” Hide explains.
Its growing popularity lies in the subtle cues it sends to our subconscious. In the same way that humans are biologically programmed to dislike overly sour or bitter (and potentially dangerous) foods, we love sweet foods for their carbohydrate-rich energy, and crave salt to maintain mineral balance.
Our response to umami flavours sends signals to our brain that we have consumed protein, and triggers the secretion of saliva and digestive juices to facilitate digestion. Because protein is vital to our diet, humans have evolved to associate umami with essential nutrition.
Although its presence in food by no means guarantees nutritional value, umami-focused recipes often rely less on salt, fat, and sugar without compromising palatability.
However, umami wasn’t always so widely popular globally. Western gastronomy’s resistance to recognising umami as a primary taste is rooted in racism and was reinforced by misinformation about MSG (monosodium glutamate) in the 1960s. Ignorance about umami persists today, largely because the English language lacks precise words to describe the flavour and mouthfeel experience.
Understanding umami in coffee
The global culinary spotlight on umami is bigger than ever as Japanese cuisine receives broader appreciation for its emphasis on high-quality ingredients, rare and rich flavours, artful presentation, and health benefits.
Similarly, specialty coffee culture is placing greater emphasis on umami, but this wasn’t always the case.
Historically, the coffee industry’s flavour evaluation systems were based on quality standards that overlooked the influence of culture on flavour preferences. The Specialty Coffee Association Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, for example, largely disregarded the tastes of coffee-producing regions and imposed the definition of “good” coffees based on the flavour preferences of majority-consuming markets.
Western markets lacked a precise grasp of umami – and the adequate language to describe it – so umami flavours were more likely to be labelled as “savoury”, “meaty”, or “brothy”. As a result, many coffee professionals and consumers in these markets considered them as negative descriptors or defects.
“This was a cultural bias, not a sensory fact,” Hide says.
In response to this lack of inclusivity, various stakeholders in the coffee sector created “localised” flavour wheels. These include umami flavour notes such as “sweet fermented rice” and “roasted minced pork sauce”, both popular in countries like Taiwan.
The SCA’s recently updated Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) reflects some of these cultural differences in taste preferences. The CVA separates descriptive assessment (the objective description of a coffee’s flavour profile) from affective assessment (the subjective impression of a coffee’s quality).
“In affective form, it’s all about the preferences; if you like the umami, then you score well in the affective form,” Hide explains. “But if you don’t like it, you score low. In robusta or liberica, for example, you can find umami sensations. But it’s not about whether it tastes good or not.”
Beyond flavour descriptors, umami helps us better describe mouthfeel, texture, and aroma in coffee.
Cokuun, for example, is pioneering the use of umami as a foundational ingredient in its signature beverages. Utilising a dashi made from dry seaweed, bonito, tomato, and mushrooms, Cokuun adds complexity to its drinks and turns coffee into a “culinary beverage,” Hide explains.
“We don’t add sweetness to our drinks, which is difficult,” he adds. “Instead, we use different yeasts and let them ferment.”
Umami can integrate the complex layers of ingredients. For example, the flavours of Cokuun’s cold drip brew coffee with white peach, fig leaf, sansho pepper, and eggplant didn’t work well together without mushroom dashito unite them, Hide tells me.
“We consider the barista as a chef, and umami is one of our main tools,” he explains. “If we don’t use umami, we can’t build the drink or the coffee around the omakase concept.”
Will umami prevail in coffee?
From viral gochujang caramel cookies to tomato vine soda floats, umami is seeping into every corner of the culinary and beverage worlds, including specialty coffee.
“We’re at a place where we’re up to trying anything,” says LaNisa, the owner and founder of coffee training and consultation business Barista Life LA and the coffee pop-up Hustler’s Cup in LA, California. LaNisa also created the Instagram campaign Black in Brew to highlight the work of Black coffee professionals.
“We’ve run through all the flavours in the sense of the traditional ones like caramel and vanilla,” she adds. She reports that she first heard whispers of umami among specialty coffee professionals in the US this year while working with Oatly.
Coffee brands seek to differentiate themselves, and exploring the distinctive elements of various Asian cuisines is one means of doing so.
“It’s uncharted information that we just haven’t had the amount of time to explore,” LaNisa says. “Coffee’s unlimited; it gives a platform for all these different flavours to have an opportunity to shine.”
However, umami has a ways to go before mainstream popularity in specialty coffee.
At Coffee Fest Los Angeles in August 2025, LaNisa served miso maple lattes at the Oatly booth. Most attendees were familiar with miso, but fewer were certain how to pair it with coffee.
“We had mixed feelings on it,” LaNisa says. “But a lot of people did walk away happy. I watched ’em sip it and be like, ‘ah, that’s different, but I could get used to this’.”
Continual innovation in processing, such as co-ferments and koji fermentation, is likely to bring more umami flavours to the forefront in specialty coffee, especially as more consumers develop a taste for fermented ingredients with health benefits.
The plant-based and functional beverage trends bode well for the appreciation of umami. In particular, adaptogenic mushrooms have a subtly earthy richness that can complement coffee.
Signature drinks are also an opportunity to showcase umami. The art of a signature beverage is to experiment with recipes that push the boundaries of what we define as excellent coffee.
Instead of relying on sugar, fat and salt, the natural flavour-bombs of umami ingredients can “open up the next chapter of the specialty coffee industry,” Hide says. Umami can preserve the intricate flavour profiles and mouthfeel of coffee, preventing them from being overwhelmed by syrups and heavily customised drinks.
Cafés that introduce umami ingredients to their menus may need to give unfamiliar customers time to adapt, LaNisa says. Other Asian-inspired coffee trends – such as Filipino ube and Japanese and Chinese black sesame syrups – demonstrate the potential for its success.
“We gave ube a run, and it’s still going, so just be open and be willing to try new things,” LaNisa says.
As global interest in Asian flavours continues to grow, it’s likely that umami-forward ingredients will become more prominent in signature drinks, coffee cocktails, and even filter coffee.
Ultimately, umami can offer an often underappreciated flavour attribute that the four other tastes can’t: deliciousness. Long unrecognised by Western culture, umami is increasingly embraced by baristas, bartenders, and chefs worldwide, opening new possibilities for the gastronomy and specialty coffee industries.
Enjoyed this? Then readour article on why ube is a trending flavour in specialty coffee.
Photo credits: Cokuun
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