About Unicorn Wine Design

Mike Lammi
The Unicorn

How I became known for my “Unicorn Tastebuds”.

Barley

This story is not based on mythology but follows me on my round about journey as I developed my chops for tasting ingredients for food and wines! After my wife and I finished our stint in the Peace Corp, my real career started off as a Commodity trader at the Minneapolis Grain exchange. There I was a cash trader on the exchange floor located at 4^th and 4^th in downtown Minneapolis, MN. Now a Cash Trader represented sellers from the Midwest, usually large farmers, or grain elevators, on the cash trading floor located at the Minneapolis Grain exchange. We represented our clients and sold their cash grains to the many mill buyers and food processors that used the grain exchange floor to procure their grains for commissions.

We did business with all the grain and flour mills, food processors, petfood manufacturers as well as bakeries, confectionary users and a anyone who wanted to purchase in larger quantities. The smallest unit traded was either a Truckload, approx. 800 bushels, of raw grain or a rail car which was approx. 3,300 bushels per car.  Most of the buyers purchased in much larger volumes, sometimes purchasing 100 rail cars, or a unit train, of grain at a time. Those sales were good ones and usually led to several rounds of drinks at the bar once the trading for the day was done.

This profession introduced me to grains such as Malting Barley, a very important ingredient in the Beer making process I was very happy to find out. I spent many summer days touring the Malting Barley growing areas in Northwestern Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana to check on the progress and sample the 2-row and 6-row Malting Barley during the growing season as it was critical to understand and know where the best barley was being grown that year so you could get a jump on the competition. Sampling and tasting Malting Barley was a bit of an art and one that I learned from several grizzly and wily veterans of the Malting Barley world.

To sample or taste the Barley I had to learn why it mattered and what we were tasting for. In short, the difference between Malting Barley and Barley used for Animal Feeds was sometimes a very fine line. During the malting process you needed Malting Barley to germinate or sprout to complete the malting process. If the germ of the barley is damaged, discolored or not healthy the Barley will not germinate or sprout effectively. To understand if the germ and health of the Barley kernel was acceptable, we would pearl the Barley or de-husk it by using a simple milling process. Once the barley was pearled, we could easily see the germ and kernel to determine if it was damaged, infected, or otherwise not worthy of being a Malting Barley.  The veterans (remember grizzly and wily) would also taste the pearled Barley to determine if the kernel and germ where firm, healthy with no off flavor notes to it.

Now I am not going to say I became an expert when it came to tasting Malting Barley, but my interest was piqued and a lifelong understanding of the need to not only see and feel raw ingredients, but also to test and taste them arouse within me.

This was only hammered home by subsequent experiences with Wheat(s) for breads, pasta, and other uses where we learned how to do a taste test that let us get a pre-determination of what the falling numbers test would look like. Falling numbers represent the alpha amylase activity within the grain. Too low a falling number would mean there was too much alpha amylase, and the starch structure of the grain was not optimal for milling or use in Bread or Pastas. A Very high number would tell you that you may have to add additional enzymes at the time of milling to achieve a consistent or acceptable dough structure. Additionally, the look and tasted of the kernel was important as well. So, by chewing the kernels and mixing them with a limited amount of saliva you could get a general idea, through the feel of your sample, of what the starch structure of the kernel was representing.

There are many such examples within the commodity world of the need to test and taste various grains and/or by products to make sure the right qualities are present in order to process them correctly.

About Unicorn Wine Design cont’d

Fruits

Let’s fast forward to fruits. I was once the Fruit buyer for Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream, and this is where tasting reached its zenith for me and a portion of my buying life that I really enjoyed and will never forget! Where else could you follow the harvest from Mexico to Canada and tasting your way through every berry imaginable. Including Blueberries (Wild and Farm raised), Raisins, Strawberries, Raspberries, Pineapple, Peaches, Mangoes and Matcha tea (premium Japanese Green Tea). Getting the right fruit at the right time from the right growers so that it could be processed in order to capture 100% of its flavor and functionality was an extreme challenge. But again, my taste buds helped me to carry the day!

Understanding the Degree of Brix (Brix for short) was very important as you procured each fruit and the faster you could get this tested and finalized the faster you could move and purchase a grower’s fruit! Brix simply refers to the level of sugar/sucrose in the fruit which is very important for not just the flavor but also within the formula as getting the end product to the correct sweetness and physical properties (Emulsion/Stability for Ice Cream) is critical! Knowing how to taste and calibrate your tastebuds to help you deduce the approximate Brix levels are critical and enjoyable!

Additionally, as I was making my way through 5 food companies all within the top 100 companies during this journey, I also became involved in the tasting of finished products. I will not list all the food, beverage, nutraceutical, and pharma products that I tasted and participated in tasting but it was a lot!

I was also part of many ingredient tasting panels where we taste tested existing, new or substitute ingredients to use in the products we produced. In this process we tested and tasted everything from flavors to food chemicals and even some types of packaging that had food contact concerns.

Now we can begin discussing the wine journey I have begun more recently!

With all that passion for food and beverage tasting that has been built up through my carrier, I had to release it into something new and so digging into the raw materials (Grapes) for wine was second nature to me. This part of the journey is one that I have enjoyed more than all the rest as the ability to procure your raw materials and develop your product are so closely related that it has been extremely rewarding and fun!

I have partnered with some of those old Grizzly and Wily wine makers to help me along this journey as I am working to develop the touch, feel and taste for the wines that I am passionate about!

I have been teased about having “Unicorn Tastebuds” for years now and so now I am putting my money where my tastebuds are!