Sugar and salt have traditionally been used to enhance the taste of raw ingredients in cooking, but the marriage of the two flavors has recently been getting more attention, as food makers in Korea have started adding more sugar to traditionally savory dishes.
The trend began last year with the groundbreaking honey-butter potato chips, and now one of the hottest new treats is Jjawang, a type of instant jjajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce) from Nongshim.
The noodles imitated a type of jjajangmyeon called ganjjajang, which contains stir-fried vegetables that add a sweet flavor to the salty sauce.
“There is some sweetness that comes out when you stir-fry vegetables like onions,” said a Nongshim representative. “Since taste is subjective we cannot say the product is sweeter than others, but can only say that it is like the taste of ganjjajang.”
The recent popularity of sweetened potato snacks has awakened an interest in sweeter flavors, and consumers are jumping to try the latest sugar-enhanced foods.
After Haitai introduced the wildly popular honey-butter potato chips, other food companies have followed suit with new sweet and savory snacks.
For example, Orion added a honey and milk flavor to its steady-selling potato chip brand Oh Gamja. McDonalds held a temporary promotion selling French fries seasoned with honey-butter flavor in March.
Even makers of soju, Korea’s popular distilled alcoholic drink, have jumped on the sugar bandwagon, adding sweet, fruity flavors to the spirits. Lotte introduced Sunhari, a citron-flavored soju that instantly became a must-try item earlier this year. The company has since followed up with peach and lime flavors.
This latest fad can be explained in part by the complementary relationship between the two flavors, with salt traditionally being used to enhance sweetness in recipes and sugar to improve the flavor of savory recipes.
“Some Japanese people spread salt over watermelon, and people in Jeolla put sugar in kongguksu [cold soy milk soup with noodles] to bring out a synergy between the two tastes,” said Hong Shin-ae, a cook and owner of Ssalgagye, a restaurant in Seoul that serves home-style Korean food.
“When the balance of sugar and salt is just right, the taste can be further upgraded.”
While this flavor combination has been long known by cooks, food business entrepreneur Baek Jong-won has further popularized the use of sugar in savory dishes, frequently demonstrating recipes that use sugar to achieve the perfect flavor. For instance, he even adds sugar to doenjang jjigae (fermented bean paste stew), a traditionally savory dish, to balance the bitter flavor. Baek owns many popular food franchises that often appear on TV.
The mix of sweet and salty flavors has long been popular overseas as well, and big-name companies that are known for such flavors have expanded their presence in Korea in recent years.
Japanese confectioner Royce, which opened a store in Korea in 2012, makes chocolate-covered potato chips that are a steady seller, and American popcorn company Garrett’s, which entered the Korean market last year, sells bags of mixed popcorn that contain both its savory cheese and sweet caramel flavors.
Experts say consumers’ love of sweet and salty food, with a desire for more sugar, is related to their levels of stress. People only have a limited amount of time each day but want to use it effectively and get the most enjoyment.
“When a human body takes in sugar, it helps produce the hormones that make people feel happy and relieve stress,” said Nam Ki-sun, head of dietary research at Pulmuone, a food company.
“Eating something sweet can be one of the easiest and fastest ways to relieve stress.”
Restaurant owner Hong has also concluded that patrons to her eatery in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, prefer sweeter tastes, always complimenting her soup dishes for their sweet flavor.
“Of course there’s no way the sugar was in those dishes and the sweet taste comes naturally from cabbage, onions or other ingredients like crabs, and people taste that sweetness and keep asking for refills,” she said.
“I hear people get instantly happy when they taste the sweetness, and it seems like there are many people who want to feel happiness from the food they eat.”
Adding more sugar is also the companies’ way of creating more intense flavors, tempting consumers to buy their new products.
“As humans’ tastes get used to what they commonly eat, they want something stronger, and that could be one reason why people continuously look for something savory and something sweeter and get addicted,” Nam said.
“People usually say a particular food isn’t good when the taste is bland,” said Nam. “However, when they say a dish is salty, they think everything else tastes good but a little too much salt is the problem, but soon they will get used to the taste and look for that stimulus again.”