What is Kokumi?

The Tiki Food Lab is Dedicated to Umami Research - Including Why Kokumi Matters!

Taste Is A Complex Biological Process

Before we get into the details of the taste of Kojumi, let’s start by evaluating how taste works.  Taste is a complex response to sensory stimuli received from taste bud sensors, mouthfeel somatosensory sensations, and chemesthesis.[1]  The brain converts information from what is called the chemosensory systems, to create what we know as taste.  I often think of taste as a sensation based upon the “eye of the beholder” – similar to perception.  Four people may recall an identical event in four different ways.  Taste is similar in that four people will perceive it differently.  What matters is whether you like what you perceive as taste for any individual food item.

Taste happens in the nose, the mouth, and the brain.  As your fork approaches your mouth, your nose goes to work first – through the olfactory system, which detects airborne molecules called odors.[2]  We can do things to amplify the scent of flavor, such as heating a food to create steam, or by adding bubbles which pop at the surface and toss flavor into the air, or by using smoke, which rises from the surface of the food.  When the food enters the mouth, the taste buds, or gustatory system, take over by detecting water-soluble molecules called testants.[3] It is the tastats that provide information regarding the “quality, quantity, pleasantness, and safety of ingested food.”[4]  This information then passes through you trigeminal chemoreception system – a fancy word for a the pathway between the taste bunds and brain composed of a bunch of neurons whose axons run in the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves.[5]  When these stimuli hit the brain, little bells go off and you get the sensation and full complexity of flavor, depending on what the signals are saying, but it is the culmination of the entire sensory process that results in the complex perceptual experience of taste.

Kokumi Is A Unique Taste Sensation

The term Kokumi is the new Umami.  You may have started hearing culinary commentators toss the term around, but what does it really mean?  And the answer is complex – in fact there has been a significant amount of recent research to figure out and define Kokumi, without international consensus.[6]

Lets first start with the meaning of the word itself.  Kokumi is a Japanese word made of two parts, “Koku” and “mi.”  Koku has traditionally been used as a volume of rice needed for an individual for an entire year – which is about 330 pounds of rice!  In the culinary arena, it refers to a deep richness or positive oral perception of food, and is often used in packaging on foods such as soy sauce, ice cream, chocolate, coffee, and beer.  Commentators have further defined Koku as meaning “strong, rich, concentrated, deep, complex, and long-lasting feeling of continuity and lingeringness.”[7]  The second part of the word, “mi” is a complex word in Japanese, ranging from “beautiful” to “ocean or sea” to “not yet” to “body” or “the flesh of fish or meat” or “fruit, nut or seed.”  So, interestingly, the term “mi” is almost as complex as the term Kokumi itself.

One researcher, Nishimura, proposed a scientific definition of Kokumi as the overall sensation perceived because of enhancements in three categories of stimuli, including: taste, smell, and texture that results in feelings of complexity, mouthfulness and lingeringness.[8]  This definition seeks to quantify the overall sensory experience of taste, aroma and texture.  Thus, Kokumi appears to be an amalgamation of taste and textures in their ability to make tastes linger and become more complex with things like viscosity, smoothness, sharpness, crunch, and pop.  It seems that a consensus is building that Kokumi describes complexity, thickness, mouthfulness, and community of taste.[9]

The Five Flavors Of Taste & How Kokumi Fits In:

There are five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami – which are flavors directly perceived by taste receptors in your taste buds, activated by tastants.[10]  Here are some interesting details of the five base flavors:

• Sweet foods signal the presence of carbohydrates that serve as an energy source.  Sweet also triggers electrical signals to the reward center of the brain, releasing dopamine and promoting the release of insulin to prepare for energy absorption;

  
  

• Salty taste relates to the intake of sodium ion (Na+), which is a positively charged particle formed when a sodium atom loses one electron, which is needed for maintaining water balance and blood circulation in the body;

  
  

• Umami comes from the taste of L-glutimate and several other L-amino acids that reflect a food’s protein content, and are naturally produced by aging, fermenting, and curing;

  
  

• Bitter tends to be an adverse sensory process associated with poisons.  It also stimulates digestive juices, curbs sugar cravings and activates immune responses;

  
  

• Sour signals dietary acids, which also tends to be an adverse sensation due to the potential for overloading the acid-body-balance, but one that sharpens the flavor of food in small doses.[11]

  
  

These basic tastes are classified as sensory sensations.  However, in contrast, Kokumi is not recognized as having a basic taste of its own, but when combined with basic tastes, it elicits oral perception changes such as thickness, mouthfulness and continuity to transform the intensity and impact of taste and flavor.[12]

So, what does that all man?  Kokumi is a complex oral perception based upon texture, thickness and mouthfeel working in conjunction with the flavors of taste.  Once again, taste is in the mouth of the beholder – so each of our perceptions of Kokumi may be different, which is why it is so difficult to define. 

What Foods Have Kokumi?

The first food thought to be associated with Kokumi is garlic.[13]  Research regarding why the addition of garlic to Asian soupes makes them taste better indicated that garlic broth demonstrated kokumi flavors including continuity, mouthfulness and thickness.  Interestingly, garlic is also rich in umami flavor.  Studies showed that the allicin compounds in the garlic water extract were found on Duolite C-25 fraction, which contains sulfur compounds.[14]  The study concluded that the sulfur-containing compounds had no basic tastes on their own, but when added to soups, showed a crab-like flavor containing glutamic acid which was amplified by umami flavors, such as Asian soups.  This is why Kokumi substances are thought to be taste modulators instead of independent flavors.

Perhaps the most commonly associated Kokumi substance is y-glutamyl peptide, which is found in fermented foods, aged cheeses, soy sauce, fish sauce, dry cured meats, yeast extract, seafood garlic, onion, and many legumes.[15]  Other similar peptides have been found in soybeans.

Another Kokumi agent is monosodium glutamate (MSG) which created Kokumi sensations in fatty foods, sweet foods, and foods with nut content.

Kokumi has also been demonstrated in amino acids such as L-arginine and L-lysine, which are found in poultry, beef, pork, beef, dairy products, legumes and quinoa.  Such amino acids on their own do not have taste, but they have strong saltiness enhancing capabilities.[16]  However, when such amino acids are added to foods, they improve complexity, thickness, and the community of flavor.

Why Is Kokumi Important?

The concept of Kokumi is important, because it makes us think about the totality of flavor.  It is not simply how your taste buds perceive foods, but a whole synergy of perceptions that are enhanced by textures, flavor enhancing agents, temperatures and ability to release flavor molecules into the air.  

Kokumi substances are also very important in working toward the creation of more delicious vegetable-based fish sauces, and flavor enhancing condiments.  The amount of acreage needed to raise cows creates pressure on the environment, so the ability to utilize other ingredients to access umami and accentuate flavor is beneficial both economically and from an environmental perspective.  Plus, it’s fun to experiment with alternate flavors derived from unexpected sources.

Additionally, since Kokumi accentuates flavors and the perception of taste, the use of Kokumi based ingredients can be used to minimize the use of salt, sugar and preservatives – which is also good for you.

At Suis Generis and The Tiki Food Lab, Kokumi is all important!  It is what we think about when we create each dish in our constantly changing menus – because it is the amalgamation of all aspects of how our body and brain perceives flavor, and thinking about how that all fits together helps drive intrigue in our food!

By Ernie Foundas 8/15/26

Executive Chef & Food Scientist

Suis Generis & The Tiki Food Lab

[1] Kitajima et al., “Kokumi Substances as Taste Modulators: Sensory Properties and Molecular Mechanisms,” Chem Senses, 2/23/26.

[2] Purves et al., “Chapter 15 – The Chemical Senses,” Neuroscience, 2^nd Edition, Sinauer Associates, 2001.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Felix Viana, “Chemosensory Properties of the Trigeminal System,” ACS Chem Neurosci., 12/22/2010, 38-50.

[6] Kitajima et al., “Kokumi Substances as Taste Modulators: Sensory Properties and Molecular Mechanisms,” Chem Senses, 2/23/26; see also, for example: Nishimura 2024; Kuroda 2024; Ramesh et al. 2025.

[7] Kitajima et al., “Kokumi Substances as Taste Modulators: Sensory Properties and Molecular Mechanisms,” Chem Senses, 2/23/26.

[8] Nishimura, Chapter “Koku Perception and Kokumi Substances,” in: “Kokumi Substance as an Enhancer of Koku,” 2/20/24, Springer, Singapore, pp 3-13.

[9] Kitajima et al., “Kokumi Substances as Taste Modulators: Sensory Properties and Molecular Mechanisms,” Chem Senses, 2/23/26.

[10] Chaudhari & Roper, “The Cell Biology of Taste,” J. Cell Biol., 8/9/2010, 190(3):285-296.

[11] Id.; see also, Wooding et al., “Bitter Taste Receptors,” Evol Med Public Health, 10/13/21, 431-447; & Kojima & Nakagawa, “The Role of the Sweet Taste Receptor in Enteroendocrine Cells and Pancreatic B-Cells,” Diabetes Metab J., 10/31/11, 451-457.

[12] Id.

[13] Ueda, et al., “Characteristic Flavor Constituents in Water Extract of Garlic,” Ag. & Bio. Chemistry, 1990, Vol 54, Edition 1, ISSN 0002-1369.

[14] Id.

[15] Wang, et. al., “Kokumi y-glutamyl Peptides: Some Insight Into Their Evaluation and Detection, Biosynthetic Pathways, Contribution and Changes in Food Processing,” Food Chemistry Advances, Vol 1, 10/22, 100061.

[16] Ogawa, et. al., “The Combination Effect of L-arginine and NaCl on Bitterness Suppression of Amino Acid Solutions,” Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo), 2004:52(2):172–177.