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VKA Australia
early-morning rows of sub-tropical citrus trees at Mooloolah on the Sunshine Coast, ripe fruit in soft golden light, the kind of grove that feeds Australian citrus flavour work.

Portfolios

Essences

Bring us a brief, get a sample back. Citrus, vanilla, savoury, coffee and tea, dairy and cheese essences developed at our Southport bench for makers across Australia and New Zealand.

About this portfolio

The flavours that show up in almost everything we eat and drink.

Citrus, vanilla, beef and chicken, tea and coffee, dairy and cheese. These are the familiar profiles that food and beverage makers across Australia and New Zealand reach for first, in beverages, snacks, dairy, confectionery and ready meals.

Replicating them under real processing conditions is the work. Heat, acidity, carbonation and shelf life pull at the profile. A flavour that smells right on a smelling strip has to still read right after pasteurisation, after months on a chiller shelf, after a hot fill.

Every essence in this portfolio is developed and made at our Southport site. Raw material selection, formulation, application trials, manufacture, one bench, one team. That combination is the point.

What we make

Five essence categories

A small clear vial of pale-gold citrus essence with a glass pipette resting across the rim, beside a halved Australian finger lime spilling pink-green caviar pearls, a blood-orange wedge and a lemon with one leaf, on the Southport application bench.

Citrus

Bright, fresh profiles for beverages, confectionery and dairy. Lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit and mandarin baselines, plus distinctly Australian work on finger lime, native lemon, blood orange and Davidson plum. Built to hold up under heat, acidity and carbonation.

Three split Madagascan vanilla pods standing in a small glass beside a clear vial of deep-amber vanilla extract with a glass stirring rod across the rim, a porcelain spoon holding a pool of extract in front, on the Southport application bench.

Vanilla

Extracts and compounds for desserts, ice cream and dairy. Clean Madagascan profiles through to deeper Tahitian-style notes, each calibrated for the application rather than presented as a single house vanilla.

A small glass of pale-gold clarified stock beside a clear vial of savoury essence, with a halved roasted onion, a marrow bone and a sprig of fresh thyme on a wooden board at the Southport application bench.

Beef and chicken

Savoury profiles for soups, sauces, seasonings and ready meals. Slow-cooked depth and roasted complexity that survive factory-scale processing and a long ambient shelf life.

A glass of freshly pulled espresso with crema beside a glass of pale-jade matcha, a clear vial of essence between them, with loose coffee beans and green tea leaves scattered on the Southport application bench.

Coffee and tea

Profiles that read as brewed, not as flavour notes. Espresso, cold brew, matcha, oolong and black tea baselines calibrated for ready-to-drink beverages, dairy and confectionery.

A clear glass jug pouring thick cream into a small white dish, beside a wedge of pale aged cheese, a curl of butter and a clear vial of dairy essence on a wooden board at the Southport application bench.

Dairy and cheese

Cream, butter, milk, cheddar, mozzarella and cream cheese profiles for bakery, snacks, sauces and confectionery. Sweet through to mature notes, calibrated to the carrier.

three glass dessert cups on a chilled stainless tray, each with a single scoop of gelato in a different flavour, vanilla, mango and Davidson plum, labelled 1, 2, 3 for an application tasting.

How it gets made

Formulated, trialled and made on one Southport site

Because the bench, the application kitchen and the manufacturing plant sit on the same site, we can move from a brief to a sample, to an application trial, to a production batch without handing the work to someone else.

That means faster iterations on a profile, tighter run-to-run consistency, and the ability to calibrate any essence to your specific product and your processing line. Send what you have. We will read it inside one business day.

Next step

Send us your brief

Tell us what you are building and what the line has to handle. We will read it, work the bench and come back with a sample. No contract to start.

We read briefs within one business day.