In the flavour trade, oral care flavours are the least talked about and have the strangest rules. Toothpaste, mouthwash, chewing gum — the thing sits in the mouth and cannot carry the slightest off-odour; it has to give a cooling sensation; after the cooling passes something of the aroma has to remain so that it feels fresh; and it has to withstand the surfactants and sweeteners in the formula and long storage. Nobody ever praises the result by saying "what a lovely smell", but the moment anything is wrong a person notices at once. WINCOM was founded in 1998 and works in three categories — household fragrances, oral care flavours and food flavours — with oral care as its specialty. The scale is not small for this industry: a production base of 26,000 square metres built to GMP standards, annual capacity above ten thousand tonnes, intelligent manufacturing; eight percent of revenue into research every year; certified to ISO9001 and ISO22000, with products meeting FDA and REACH requirements, sold to the United States, Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere. The brand positioning is "the one who sets the tone of your character", turning on two words — "style" and "taste" — using aroma to set the character of a product.

A company arranged this way naturally has high requirements of its raw materials. Each of the three lines wants something different: household fragrances need a layered aroma that lasts and has recognisability; oral care needs safety in the mouth, a cooling sensation that does not fight the aroma, and a clean aftertaste; food flavours need good fidelity, heat resistance, and the ability to go into bakery and cold drinks. Our position is most upstream — supplying natural aroma materials to those three lines. There is an advantage here that others rarely mention: natural material has a "temperament". The same variety grown on a sunny slope and grown in shade gives a different aroma direction; picked ten days early or ten days late, the style differs too. Thirty years of work has taught us these temperaments well, so whatever character a client wants, we can pick the corresponding batch. WINCOM's perfumers like that — what they want is not a standard part but a material they can "set a tone" with.

Both sides see aroma the same way: aroma has character. WINCOM uses aroma to give a brand its personality and talks of "style" and "taste"; we know that aroma is a character that grows out of a particular plot, a particular season and a particular process. One side effect of industrialisation is that everything converges — the same figures, the same aroma, usable anywhere, and nothing to remember. That is where the value of natural material lies: it is not perfect, but it has a face of its own. Thirty years in natural aroma materials, and that is the thing we are most reluctant to give up. When WINCOM's perfumers come to the workshop to select material, they can sit at the evaluation bench all day, smelling one by one, and at the end name the batch they want — that way of choosing only works on material that genuinely has temperament.

The cooperation began with an oral care product meant to last longer. The client's requirement sounded simple: the cooling of mint must be there, but after the cooling passes the mouth must not be empty — something has to remain. The real hurdle came after: cooling and aroma fight each other. Once the mint's cool rush arrives, every other aroma is pushed down, and by the time the cooling recedes the aroma is gone too. Adding more does not help; more makes the cooling harsher and pushes harder. Later we changed the approach: instead of competing with the cooling for the front section, let the aroma come out at the back. Using molecular distillation to cut by boiling range, we took the fraction with a higher boiling point and slower release; combined with controlled release, so it releases slowly over the period when the cooling fades. After the change, the product's cooling was unchanged, and once it passed there was a returning aroma in the mouth.

Talking about technology is clearest as the three gates an aroma has to pass. The first is the production gate — to enter the client's system the material has to withstand heating, stirring and high shear; that rests on pushing refining depth forward and using molecular distillation to press down impurities and unstable components, so the system does not misbehave. The second is the shelf gate — the product sits on a shelf for a year or two, and the aroma must not dissipate, change, or pick up odour from the packaging or the base; that rests on supercritical fluid extraction dealing cleanly with the easily oxidised components, and then controlled release governing the release rate. The third is the use gate — once the thing reaches the mouth or the skin, the aroma has to come out when it should; that rests on Living-Fragrance physical extraction preserving the complete aroma structure, plus concentration enriching the key components, so a small amount does the job. Only when all three gates are passed does that aroma stand up.

Supply and service follow the client's rhythm too. WINCOM's lines are large and the beat is fast, so we deliver to the arrival window they give — whatever time is agreed is the time it arrives; regularly used varieties are kept in stock, so a sudden additional order can be taken. On documents we give everything at once: for exports, the material involving FDA and REACH is prepared in one go so they do not have to ask back and forth; how the material performs in the client's system is tested in advance — heat resistance, light resistance, compatibility with common bases — all attached to the report. When the client's perfumers come to select material they stay the whole day, break for a simple meal in the canteen at noon, and go back to smelling.

For the years ahead, what the two sides need to do together is clear: find a few more varieties with temperament, so the perfumers have a wider choice; make the controlled release on the oral care line more precise; and turn the export documents into a standard package. Aroma has character, and only then does what is made have something to remember — WINCOM sets the tone for brands with aroma, and we are responsible for putting material with character into the perfumers' hands.

This article was published on 2026-09-14, and last updated on 2026-09-21. The article will be continuously updated.