What separates a flavor that works on paper from one that works in the can? Imbibe Senior Manager of Applications and Taste Modulation Lauren Senne recently joined Adam Yee on R&D Radio, the podcast from Startup CPG, to walk through what actually happens between a client’s brief and a beverage that tastes right, holds up, and scales.
The conversation goes deep on the technical realities most founders don’t encounter until they’re already mid-formulation, like how taste modulation works at the receptor level, why sugar reduction changes more than sweetness, and where CPG teams most often get stuck.
Four things worth knowing before you hit play:
Becoming a certified flavor chemist takes the better part of a decade. Lauren’s certification through the Society of Flavor Chemists took a minimum of seven years to complete, realistically closer to ten. Part of the exam involves identifying chemicals by smell alone, the kind of trained sensory precision that underlies every flavor decision Imbibe makes.
“Cherry” doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone in the room. Even simple, familiar flavor words carry different associations for different people. Imbibe closes that gap with reference products and live tastings, getting client and flavorist tasting the same thing, at the same time, before a direction is locked in.
Bitter blockers work by shutting off perception, not covering it up. They bind to bitter receptors so the brain never registers the bitterness in the first place, a distinct mechanism from masking, and one of the more counterintuitive tools in taste modulation. Most of Imbibe’s taste modulation work stays exclusively natural.
Pulling sugar changes the whole system, not just the sweetness. Swapping in stevia or monk fruit doesn’t just adjust the sweetness curve, it shifts mouthfeel and flavor balance in ways that have to be re-solved, not just re-sweetened. It’s also where Lauren flags a common founder misstep: stacking too many functional ingredients at once and creating off-notes nobody planned for.
Lauren and Adam also cover where the category is heading: clean label, protein-and-fiber combinations, and the rise of clear protein sodas.
Listen to the full episode below, or catch more conversations on Adam Yee’s R&D Radio, from Startup CPG.
Work with Imbibe to formulate beverages that actually taste as good as they perform.
