Taste Maker
Umami, Now in Paste Form

Today, we want to talk about your lunch.

There’s something missing. You might not know it—or be able to put your finger on exactly what it is—but you need something to elevate that lunch from merely good into the realm of best-tasting food known to man.

That something is paste.

Specifically, Taste #5’s Umami Paste, a pocket-sized tube of the mysterious heartiness known as umami, available now.

A quick refresher: umami is the mysterious fifth taste—in Japanese, it translates roughly to “savory” or “deliciousness”—that, until now, you could only get from chewing seaweed or sinking your teeth into a wheel of parmesan. But a crew of Italian chefs have figured out a way to puree a careful blend of tomato, garlic, anchovies, black olives, porcini mushrooms and enriched uranium (that last one’s unconfirmed) into a two-and-a-half-ounce tube of distilled umami-ness.

The result: an all-purpose secret ingredient, to be kept on your person at all times. There are the obvious uses—your next sandwich, your soon-to-be-famous line of pasta sauce—but we like going next level with, say, your Super Bowl salsa. When it comes time to dip, it’ll taste like you’ve added six truffles, a wedge of romano cheese and one filleted tuna.

Approximately.