On the birth of FlareLine

It began with how to design heat

Following Inspice’s seasoning lines Dish and HotSpice, the new series to come into being is FlareLine. It was first conceived as another flavour after HotSpice’s umami-heat and numbing-heat, on the theme of a sharp heat that carries from the core.

Working through trials with fiercely hot chillies high in capsaicin, we come to a turning point.

From heat as taste to heat as heat: how the spice design moves on

Heat in cooking is not merely a taste; it is a heat that moves aroma and umami.
That shift of view is where FlareLine starts.

If a dish needs a heat of 50, say, then the quantity required differs entirely between a chilli whose heat is 10 and one whose heat is 100. Use a smaller amount of a hotter chilli and room opens up in the design of the flavour, room in which the character of the other ingredients can be drawn out. It is a way of thinking that gives space to aroma and taste.

Through many trials, we arrive at habanero

Early in development we tested varieties hotter than habanero, bhut jolokia among them. But what we were after was not mere stimulus — it was the exact balance of heat and aroma. Limonene, pyrazines, esters.

Weighing carefully the complex aromatic components a chilli holds and how they sit with food, what we arrive at is habanero.

Fruity, with staying power in the aroma and an unusual ability to sit in harmony with other spices, habanero works in FlareLine not as the lead but as the fuse that opens up a dish’s aroma.

A quiet heat, and a spark, for your cooking

The five blends of FlareLine each carry a character of their own,
and using them according to the dish gives depth to aroma, to heat, and to the finish that lingers.

KASUMI GLOW
The umami of shiitake and kombu, with the toasted note of white sesame and red sansho pepper.
Habanero’s heat lends a soft outline to a Japanese quietness.

CITRUS EMBER
The coolness of makrut lime and lemon peel, accented with caraway and kalonji.
The heat arranges the aroma in three dimensions and gives it a clear, keen edge.

MELLOW FIRE
The sweet scent of cinnamon and anise, the depth of roasted cacao.
Within a gentle sweetness, a spice note with a firm core carries through.

GREEN NUDGE
The green of basil and tulsi, with the herbal note of fennel and sage.
A green blend that draws out the outline of your ingredients naturally.

NUTTY FLARE
The weighty toasted note of peanut, pistachio, cumin and cacao nib.
Habanero runs through the centre of it, forming a complex roasted character with a long finish.

An aroma and a heat found nowhere else, for your kitchen

FlareLine is not a spice for special occasions. It is a seasoning that lights a small heat and a small spark at the everyday table. Because the design is clean — no salt, no additives, 100% plant-derived — it works freely at any stage of cooking: frying, simmering, grilling, marinating, finishing.

For myself, every time I pick up a FlareLine jar, a small experimental urge rises: what aroma, what heat shall I lay over this dish today? And when the scent lifts from a single shake, and I find myself saying “this combination is good” with my face relaxing, something in me moves.

That one shake gives a dish character, and heat

FlareLine is a design of heat that exists nowhere else. Cooking changes through a sensibility for aroma. Ordinary days become more enjoyable. And that carries through to the smile of the person eating. That is the kind of seasoning it is.

Let FlareLine be a new choice in your kitchen too.

That one shake should light “character” and “heat” in your cooking.

---

- Sho Nishimura, Director and Flavour Designer, Inspice